Alexandra Mellows Out
by Syxxxy
Summary: Josie and Alan's relationship is beginning to take its toll on Alexandra.  Will someone else be able to save her heart and soul from being crushed?    This story is Yuri, Femslash, Femmeslash, GirlxGirl, Saffic, etc.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in any way.

Author's Notes: This story uses the first Josie and the Pussycats cartoon as canon. It is set a few years after the cartoon in the early 1970s. It does not use the comic book, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, or the live-action movie as canon. I'm also using their original last names and not the moronic names introduced when the movie came out. If you read, please review.

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 1

The scene was a decent sized club in the Scottish town of Aberdeen. This was the tenth stop on what had been a rather successful Josie and the Pussycats U.K. tour. This club in particular, while moderately large, wasn't as big as some of the much larger venues the band had played at in London, Birmingham, and Glasgow.

However, the Pussycats liked being able to play at these smaller venues almost as much as the occasional stadium their current fame had allowed them to perform in. They enjoyed the more intimate setting and felt it was a proper way to give back to some of their more hardcore fans.

The fans were really grateful as well. Many young Scots of both sexes were clamoring up by the stage to get an up close and personal view of the Pussycats. A number of their salivating and squealing fans weren't only interested in their music. Not only had Josie and the Pussycats refined the art of bubblegum pop to a high level of technical excellence, but they had also broken new ground in terms of sex appeal for a girl-band.

As always, Josie, Melody, and Valerie, the pop idols that made up the trio, were dressed in their trademark cat suits. While the costumes were indeed designed to be cute with cat ears, tails, and paw shaped slippers, the one piece spot-covered leotards were also designed to accentuate their bare legs, pelvic areas, and booties.

Valerie Smith, in particular, was currently taking advantage of this feature of their costumes as she continued to slap her tambourine against her round brown ass cheek much to the enjoyment of the fans crowding near the stage.

Despite not being afraid to give her fans a visual treat, Valerie was actually the most intellectual of the group. If she hadn't loved music so much, she certainly would have become an extremely high paid engineer working for NASA, the U.S. military, or any other sector where her knack for solving problems and inventing complex devices could be put to use. Instead, she lent her many talents to the band, one of which was her excellent skill at writing musical compositions that had undoubtedly lead to much of the band's success.

Meanwhile, Melody Jones, the group's light haired beauty, was quickly tapping her drums and the occasional cymbal with absolute expert precision. She often said that she was good at two things. The first she would say was keeping a beat. When asked what the second was, she would usually reply with a giggle, "I dunno, but I've been told that." Her band-mates moaned loudly whenever she made this comment. They didn't think she knew how suggestive that came off, which wouldn't be too surprising given her extremely absent minded nature.

Despite the fact she sometimes said she only had two talents and singing obviously wasn't the second one she was absent mindedly referring to, Melody was also a fantastic singer. Melody almost always spoke in a cheerful sing song voice regardless, so that talent came naturally to her. She easily completed the three part harmony for the current song to near perfection, and she had also performed the duty of lead singer for a number of their other hits as well.

However, undeniably, the best singer of the group was the last of the trio, Josie James. This cute redhead with a bob-cut hairstyle was of course the Josie referred to in the name of the band. This top billing signified her position as lead singer for most of the group's songs. While Melody's natural singing talent and Valerie's excellent back-up vocals were definitely integral elements to the band's sonic chemistry, Josie's heavenly, angelic singing certainly made her the star. Her talent was multi-faceted as well since she also lent the group her expert guitar playing. Indeed, very few in the music world could sing and play the guitar simultaneously as well as Josie could.

Josie was certainly the center of the band. She was also the center of the group of friends that made up the band. This was perhaps due to her extremely amicable personality. Her calm, friendly nature was very inviting, and this translated from her social circle to her music as well.

One person who consistently claimed to not be a fan of the group, however, was in attendance. That person was Alexandra Cabot, the devilishly devious vixen with the white streak that ran down the middle of her head of luscious black hair. That dark hair ended in a long black ponytail that flowed down her back. It was kept together by a cute red bow she used as a hair tie, a strong contrast to her usual nasty personality.

She was currently staring up from her table at the three Pussycats with utter disdain as they sang and jammed away on their instruments. In her lap, on top of her tiny hiked up red and black skirt, was her tuxedo cat, Sebastian. Like Alexandra, he too had a white streak running down his furry black head. He didn't hold as much contempt for the Pussycats as Alexandra did. However, he often was an accomplice in her schemes since his loyalties lay with his master.

Sitting next to her at the table and peering up at the sexy trio as well through his thick rimmed sunglasses was her brother, Alexander Cabot the Third or Alex for short. Despite his occasional undependability and extreme cowardice, his managerial skills, combined with his rich and powerful father's connections, had definitely helped the pop-trio ascend to stardom.

To Alexandra's left at the table was Alan M., the blond, muscular hunk who was the band's roadie. He was also the object of Josie's affections. Their love affair was common knowledge, although the couple attempted to keep it rather low-key. This was much to the chagrin of Alexandra, who had been trying to steal Alan away from Josie for years.

"The Pussycats are sure on fire tonight," Alan remarked, his attention of course directed at Josie strumming away on her guitar.

"You got that right," Alexander agreed. "And this U.K. tour has been a huge success. Soon they're going be bigger than the Beatles."

"Don't count on it," Alexandra said, her animosity for the Pussycats thick in her tone of voice. "Their newest single is pretty terrible."

"You've said that about all their singles, Alexandra," Alan remarked.

"Yeah, and I think 'My Love Is like a Waterfall' is their grooviest hit yet!" Alexander added.

"It would be a heck of a lot groovier if I was in the band and we were named Alexandra's Cool Time Cats," she said with a sneer. Alan and Alexander simply ignored her. They had become too accustomed to listening to Alexandra's endless complaining about the band in the years she had been traveling with them to take any of her complaints seriously.

"We'll see how groovy they are after those Pussycats are all wet," Alexandra mumbled to herself. Sebastian did a creepy snicker, already knowing the plan. "Alan, dear, I'm going to go powder my nose."

Alan didn't respond to her. That made her grimace. He was seemingly ignoring her more and more each day.

"See ya, Sis," Alexander told her. He was aware of the situation, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

Alexandra stormed off with Sebastian in her arms. "Stupid Josie! Always stealing my Alan's attention away from me!" she whined. "Well, I'll show her!" She then traveled out of the main dance floor of the club and on down to an adjoining hallway that lead to the bathrooms as well as an "Employees Only" backstage area.

Once in the backstage, she let Sebastian down on the floor and then stared up at the huge tub of water placed up on one of the rafters above the set of stage curtains Josie and the Pussycats were performing in front of. Sebastian had helped Alexandra set it up there earlier that night. Their plan had been to spill it over the band during their encore performance of their new single.

"Looks like 'Your Love Is like a Waterfall' is going to take on a very literal meaning," she said before emitting a rather evil, haughty laugh. "Maybe they'll be renamed Josie and the Soaking Wet Pussycats." Alexandra laughed even more at her moronic joke, and Sebastian joined in with his snickering. She then put her finger on her juicy bottom lip, "Hmmm, that sounds a bit naughty, doesn't it?" Sebastian meowed, but she couldn't tell if he was agreeing or disagreeing with her. "Well, what can I say? I can be a _very_ bad girl."

She then walked over to the rope that was tied to the tub of water up on the rafter. She also walked right past it to another identical rope that was hanging a few feet away from it. Sebastian started meowing at her very loudly after seeing her going for the wrong rope. This rope instead ran up to and through a pulley far above the stage and was attached to a very large sandbag on the other end that was used as a counterbalance.

"Time for you to get all wet, Josie!" Alexandra exclaimed before she tugged on the rope. The rope was taught and barely moved. She tugged on it a few more times, looked up at the tub, and became frustrated that it hadn't tipped over yet. "Sebastian, it's not moving. Did you set this up right, you stupid cat?"

Sebastian kept meowing loudly and shaking his head, trying to tell her that she should stop. Alexandra, however, didn't get the message. She then looked down and saw the rope was tied to a hook. "Sebastian, you fur-brained feline, why did you tie it down like that?" He continued shaking his head. He then took his paw, ran it across his throat, and then pointed back to the correct rope.

Alexandra simply ignored him, leaned down, and tried to untie the knot. However, it was tied very tightly and only came undone slightly as she tugged on parts of the knot as hard as she could. Alexandra cursed under her breath as she heard Josie singing the last few verses of "My Love Is like a Waterfall." Utterly frustrated, she stood up and kicked the knot as hard as she could. "Stupid rope!"

Suddenly, more of the knot came undone and Alexandra's slender foot slid into a tiny noose that had formed with a bit of the slack. When Alexandra tried to pull her foot back out, the noose tightened around her ankle. "Let go of me!" she screamed as she forcefully yanked her ankle back away from the knot. Unfortunately, this caused the rest of the knot to slide off of the hook.

Like a rocket, Alexandra and the rope now tied around her ankle shot up into the air. On the other side, the sandbag plummeted towards the stage. Just as the band finished their encore performance, the sandbag collided into the stage just left of Melody's drum set. Suddenly, the room that was previously raucously loud with music and screaming fans went deafly quiet.

The sound of one woman's voice screaming could then be heard. The woman in question then swung through the middle of the two curtains twenty feet above the stage and continued to swing back and forth like a yo-yo from the rope tied around her ankle. "Get me down from here! Help me! Help me!" Even more embarrassing was the fact that since she was upside down her skirt was pulled down by the force of gravity, revealing her panties to the band and the entire audience. Printed across her ass on the panties were the big yellow cat-shaped logo of Josie and the Pussycats and the name of the band in big bold type.

Josie then noticed the tub of water that was see sawing back and forth on the rafter thanks to the rope hitting the rafter as Alexandra swung back and forth. "Watch out girls!" she yelled, pointing up at the tub. Quickly, Josie unplugged her guitar and ran off stage, followed by Valerie and Melody. The tub then finally tipped over, and the gallons of water inside poured over Alexandra like a flash flood. The crowd erupted into applause and cheers at seeing the girl thoroughly humiliated, and there were a few whistles as well aimed at Alexandra's shapely dripping wet bottom that was on display for all to see. The rope then stopped swinging, and Alexandra came to rest in front of the curtains.

The show now over, the fans started pouring out of the club, ignoring Alexandra's high pitched pleas for help. Alexandra remained hanging helplessly for several minutes above an empty stage in an empty club before, cheerful as always, Melody reappeared with a towel and started drying off her drums and cymbals. She was no longer in her Pussycat costume and was instead barefoot and dressed in a short pair of gym shorts and a football jersey a couple sizes too big for her. She commonly wore these after a show when she was trying to relax. She then emitted one of her trademark giggles before saying in her sing song voice, "Alexandra, that was so funny! You should be a comedian! Like the next Three Stooges. Although, I guess it would be the One Stooge, and you'd be a girl stooge."

"I didn't do this on purpose, you twit!" Alexandra shouted into the curtains. She couldn't turn to face her due to the direction she was hanging from. "Help me get down!"

"_He he he hoo hoo hoo!_ Don't worry, I told Alan to get a ladder."

Suddenly, Alexandra wasn't so enraged about hanging upside down while soaking wet in her underwear. The mere thought of Alan taking her in his muscular arms and carrying her down suddenly filled both of her pale cheeks with a rosy blush and her stomach with a pleasant tingly sensation that warmed up the rest of her body. "Well, tell him to hurry up," she said. The moment couldn't come soon enough for her.

"Ok," Melody chirped as she continued patting down her drums. "By the way, really cute panties, Alexandra!" Melody said, staring up at the small piece of cloth across Alexandra's bottom that was now pretty much see through thanks to all the water it had absorbed. "I have the same pair. Can you believe it?"

"You don't say," Alexandra droned.

She then heard the sound of footsteps from far away down the long stage. They got louder and closer until they stopped behind her. She then heard the sound of a step ladder being set up quickly followed by the appearance of the last two steps of the ladder in front of her face. Her heart started pounding wildly in anticipation as she heard the sound of someone stepping up the ladder. "Oh my knight in shining armor! You've come to rescue me!" she exclaimed even though she couldn't see who it was since she was still facing the curtains. She then heard the sound of the rope being sawed and felt an arm wrap around her waist from behind. Alexandra wiggled in excitement and emitted a high pitched, "Eeep!" of pleasure.

"Hey, would you stop moving around so much, Sis?" Alexander complained.

"You're not my Alan! Get off of me!" She tried wiggling even harder to get out of his grasp. "I want Alan!"

"Hey, knock it off!" It was too late. The ladder tipped over from Alexandra's struggling, and the half cut rope snapped in two. The ladder, Alexander, and Alexandra then went crashing into the floor right on top of Melody's drums. Alexander dived head first into Melody's bass drum, the rest of the drums and cymbals were destroyed by the ladder, and Alexandra landed on top of Melody.

Alexander pulled his head out of the drum. "I surrender, I surrender," he uttered before losing consciousness.

Alexandra was in better shape, Melody's voluptuous body having cushioned her fall. Alexandra lifted her still soaking wet head up from between Melody's round breasts. She was surprised to see Melody's smiling, cute face a mere inch away from her own. For a moment she looked into Melody's blue eyes, seemingly disoriented, and Melody stared back contently. "_Hmmmm?_" Melody purred before batting her eye lashes at her. Alexandra gave her a slightly confused expression and then pulled herself up off of the attractive blonde's body.

Finally, Alan, Josie, and Valerie walked back into the room and on to the stage. Josie and Valerie were both now in regular clothes as well. Alexandra frowned deeply when she saw Josie latched around Alan's muscular arm. "Thanks for fixing that guitar string for me, Alan."

"No problem, Josie. That's what I'm here for," he said, flashing a bright smile with his perfect white teeth down at the cute girl with the short red hair.

"I don't remember Josie breaking a guitar string," Melody said, scratching her head.

"What about me?" Alexandra whined at Alan.

"Yeah, about you, Alexandra," Alan finally commented. Alexandra's face lit up in anticipation. "All this wiring is going to need to be replaced," he said, pointing down at the wet cords on the stage. "These speakers too. I'm expecting you to pay for all of them since it's no doubt your fault they were ruined."

Alexandra sighed and frowned miserably. "Yeah, whatever. Send the bill to Daddy." Alan falling prey to Josie's charms was one thing she had been forced to get used to, but Alan not even caring about her well-being cut rather deep.

"Oh! Oh! Can I get a new drum set?" Melody asked her, jumping up and down.

"Fine!" Alexandra barked.

Melody ran up, wrapped her arms around Alexandra, and gave her a tight squeeze. "Yay! I've been wanting new drums!"

Valerie was not as pleased about the situation. "It's a good thing we got out of the way and I switched the power off from our equipment. You know how dangerous it is to have water around electric cords and speakers on a stage, Alexandra?" she asked, sounding truly pissed off. "Not that I haven't told you that the last dozen times you tried this exact same stunt."

"You would've lived," Alexandra spat off indignantly.

"_Hmph!_" she snorted.

A balding middle aged man, certainly unrepresentative of the club's clientele, then entered the room from the backstage area and stepped over Alexander on the ground to approach the group. He was Ian MacDonald, the club owner. "Brilliant performance!" he proclaimed in his thick Scottish accent. "I loved the flying lass in her knickers!"

Josie suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. "Um, thanks, sir. But that wasn't supposed to be part of the show."

"Whatever the case, it was pure dead brilliant!"

Normally, Alexandra would try to soak up any praise she could get even if that praise had come from her being thoroughly humiliated. For some reason, today, she didn't feel like it.

After the club owner left, Alan and Josie started chatting. Alexandra continued to just stand there, dripping wet, as she stared at Alan and Josie chattering away with each other. Occasionally, Josie would start giggling like a school girl and place her palm on his chiseled chest. She even heard them joking about her stunt during the Pussycats' encore. It was like she didn't even exist.

Melody noticed the death stare she was giving the couple, and a little bit of concern showed itself in her face. She then went and picked up the towel she had been using to dry off her drums before they were destroyed and handed it to Alexandra. "Here you go, Alexandra," she trilled with a warm smile. "You don't want to catch a cold."

"Yeah," she muttered. She didn't even turn to look at Melody as she started to towel herself off. Her extreme contempt for Josie was taking up all of her attention.

Meanwhile, a figure in a white hooded robe had snuck into the back of the club. His hood hung low over his face, hiding his identity. However, his hairy masculine hands he held clasped in front of himself gave a clue to his gender. He then moved one of those hands into a pocket in the side of his long flowing garment and extracted what looked like a laser gun straight out an old scifi creature feature. Attached to the top of the gun was a gray chunk of weather beaten stone.

The robed man then flipped a switch on the gun, and the stone started pulsating with a neon green glow. He then aimed it at the group of youngsters up on the stage and squeezed the trigger. The gun made a buzzing sound, but no bullet or visible beam of energy exited its barrel. Instead, an arrow shaped dial on a gauge marked with an "N" on the left and a "V" on the right ran from the center neutral position to the V.

The hooded figure seemed very pleased about the reading. However, as he continued to point the gun up at the group, he became frustrated. He couldn't tell which individual was giving off the V reading. They were all standing too close together.

Up on the stage, Melody's ears began wiggling back and forth frantically under her long locks of platinum blond hair. "Uh oh," Valerie said, "Melody's ears are giving off the danger signal." Everyone in the group began staring at the cute girl and her wiggling ear lobes, including Alexander who had just pulled himself off the floor after regaining consciousness.

"He he he. It must be that scary ghost aiming that gun at us," she said, pointing in the robed figure's direction, in a completely unconcerned and joyful tone of voice.

"_Gh-gh-gh-ghost!"_ Alexander screamed before once again passing out and falling face first back into the floor, this time completely destroying his already cracked sunglasses.

Realizing he had been discovered, the robed man proceeded to turn and run out the door as quickly as possible. The group seemed bewildered.

"Some ghost. Looks like he's a bigger chicken than my stupid brother," Alexandra scoffed.

"I wonder if he's a friendly ghost like Casper," Melody mused. "Golly, wouldn't it be fun to have a ghost for a friend?"

"I don't think that was a ghost, Melody," Josie said. "It looked more like someone wearing a white robe."

"Not just any robe," Valerie added, "It looked just like the robe of a traditional druid. I saw a picture of one once in a book I was reading on the history of ancient Europe."

"Well, don't you just know everything," Alexandra snapped. Valerie gave her a very nasty glare.

"What would a druid be doing up here in Scotland at one of our shows though?" Alan asked.

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea," Valerie answered.

"He was holding some kind of gun too. What was that all about?" Josie asked.

"It looked like one of those toy laser guns I used to have as a kid when I was Captain Melody, Queen of Space!"

"Must be another nut like you, ding-a-ling," Alexandra told her.

"Well, nutty druid fan or not, we should get going," Alan said. "I'll go load up everything in the van that Alexandra didn't ruin."

Alexandra grunted in disdain. Seeing her reaction, Josie gave her a slightly insolent smirk before she went to go help Alan, enraging the dark haired girl even more.

"Meow." Sebastian had finally decided that he was safe enough from Alexandra's wrath to come back out from hiding and join the group.

"I should hang you up from a rafter by your tail, you moronic fur ball!" Alexandra growled.

"Meow!" Sebastian went and ran behind Melody's legs.

"Awww, I'm sure she doesn't mean it," she told him.

In short order, Alan had removed all the instruments and sound equipment not damaged by Alexandra's stunt into the back of the pink tour van they had rented for the U.K. tour. Applied to the side of the van was a decal with the same exact Josie and the Pussycats logo and print design as was on Alexandra's underwear.

Finally, Alan loaded Josie's guitar, the last piece of equipment. However, after he shut the rear door, he noticed a box had appeared on the parking lot next to the van's rear wheel since the last time he had went back into the backstage of the club to find more things to carry.

He picked it up off the ground and saw that a note was attached to the top of it. It read, _To Josie and the Pussycats._

He was then joined by the girls, Sebastian, and Alexander, who had been resuscitated by Alexandra slapping him in the face until he woke up. "What's that, Alan?" Josie asked.

"I don't know, must be a present from a fan," Alan said, handing it to Josie. Josie read the note aloud.

"Must be a gift for me," Alexandra said.

"You're not in the band," Valerie snapped.

"Your mistake, not mine," Alexandra shot back. "All I asked for was top billing."

The others just chose to ignore her. "Well, Josie, I guess you can do the honors," Valerie told her.

"Ok. Thanks, Val." She opened the box and was surprised at what she saw. From within the box she extracted both an old, wrinkly piece of yellow paper and the same exact gun shaped device the druid had been aiming at them earlier.

"Oh, oh, the ghost gave us his toy laser gun!" Melody chirped, excited. She then grabbed it out of Josie's hands, flipped what she assumed was an on-off switch, aimed it at Alexander, and pressed the trigger. "Bang! Bang! You're dead!"

"Ahhh! Don't shoot!" Alexander screamed before taking a quivering fetal position on the ground. As before, the gun didn't shoot anything visible out of its barrel. Instead, it again made a buzzing noise as the rock attached to the top of the gun glowed a strange neon green.

"It's just a toy, Chicken Little," Alexandra told him.

"Oh, thank god," he said, standing back up and wiping the sweat from his brow above his fresh pair of sunglasses. He always brought about twenty pairs with him on tour.

"Hmm. I don't think it's a toy," Valerie said, peering at the gun from over Melody's shoulder. She then took it out of Melody's hand. "Looks more like some kind of mechanical device used for something else. This stone back here looks like it's used as a power source. Very strange. It must be composed of zinc or some other kind of highly reactive element that can be used as a battery. But I've never seen a set up like this before."

"Can you tell what it does?" Josie asked.

"Well… there's a gauge on the top here with one side marked N and the other marked V. When Melody shot it at Alexander, the dial ran to N. It must work sort of like a metal detector, but I can't tell what it detects. I'm guessing N stands for no or not. As for V, I have no idea."

"Let me see it," Alexandra said, ripping it away from Valerie. She then proceeded to aim the gun and fire it at Valerie, Melody, Alan, Sebastian, and Josie in that order. "Looks like you're all N's," Alexandra said. She then continued to aim it at Josie and clicked the trigger several times in a row. She was obviously having some fun with it.

"It's not a real gun, Alexandra," Josie said, obviously unamused.

"Well, isn't that a pity, Josiekins," she said with an evil smirk. "Personally, I think it means you're all nobodies."

"And what about you, Alexandra?" Josie asked, yanking the gun out of her grasp. She then shot it at her. However, this time, the dial ran to V. "Wow, looks like Alexandra's a V."

"It must stand for vast beauty," she said before taking her fingers and running them through some of her luscious locks of dark hair. "Don't you agree, Alan, dear?"

"Must be something else," he said. Alexandra looked instantly upset at the comment, although she didn't say anything to retort him.

"Yeah, like very obnoxious girl," Valerie said. Josie gave a small snicker, although she put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing too much at Alexandra's expense.

Melody looked at Alexandra. She truly looked upset. In fact, it looked like she was fighting hard to hold back tears. Melody could also tell it was because of Alan's comment and not Valerie's. She then put her finger on her lip and thought for a second. "Oh, I know what it means!" Melody chimed in. "Alexandra must be a secret ventriloquist!"

"Yeah right, and you can be my dummy, dummy," Alexandra smarted off. She suddenly looked agitated again and not nearly as vulnerable as she had just a moment ago.

"Oh, that sounds like fun!" Melody exclaimed. Alexandra rolled her eyes. "But how will you fit your hand inside me?" Alexandra's expression changed from one of slight annoyance to one of being creeped out. Melody giggled.

"Oh my!" Josie said as she examined the old piece of paper that had also been in the box.

"What is it, Josie?" Alan asked.

"I think this is some kind of treasure map!" The whole group crowded around Josie.

"Like how do you know?" Alexander asked.

"Because it says right here," she said, pointing to the words that had in fact been scrawled over the top of the map in what looked to be blue ink from a pen, "Treasure Map."

"Brilliant deduction, Josie," Alexandra sneered.

Josie just ignored her. She then pointed at the diagram of trees, hills, moors, streams, lochs, and a dotted line that marked a path to the supposed treasure. "It says this is the Abernethy Forest."

"That's really close to here," Alan said. "In fact, we drove right past it."

"I also saw some fliers for a camp site there at the restaurant," Valerie added.

"Oh, let's go camping and treasure hunting!" Melody shouted.

Alexander shivered at the thought. "Right, let's just use some fishy map some crazy druid gave us and go skipping through some creepy woods on a wild goose chase. I think I'll stay in the hotel."

"But aren't you interested in the treasure?" Josie asked him. "I think we would all get equal shares… _those of us that go along anyways_."

"Well, it would help cut down the overhead from this tour, but… still I think this is a really bad idea."

"Come on, chicken brother. That stupid druid was almost as much of a wimp as you are. What is there to be afraid of? Besides, I think camping can be awfully romantic. Don't you think so, Alan?" she asked, batting her eye lashes at the blond hunk.

He didn't seem swayed. "Hmm. Well, I don…"

Josie cut him off, "I think Alexandra may be right," she said, stepping much closer to him and placing her hand on his bulging bicep.

"All right, we'll go!" he said enthusiastically, completely convinced. He then stared down at Josie's alluring eyes mesmerized. Josie stared back. Both seemed to be in a trance.

"_Grrrrrrrrr,_" Alexandra growled in a darkly guttural tone. Melody again looked at her concerned. Normally, Alexandra's extreme jealousy of Josie and bitter frustration from Alan subtly shooting down her advances would go almost unnoticed by the rest of the group due to this kind of behavior from her being an extremely common occurrence.

However, Melody, in particular, could tell that for the last few days Alexandra had been acting slightly differently. No one else had seemed to have noticed at all, but she could sense it even now in her quivering bottom lip and pain filled eyes. Alexandra was a girl who was about to break.

To Be Continued.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own nor am I associated with Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in any way.

Author's Notes: If you read, please review.

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 2

The old green and teal van, known to its owners affectionately as the Mystery Machine, plowed down an old beaten highway alongside a tall cliff that soared above the crashing waves of the North Sea.

"Well, gang, we're on our way to solve the mystery of the Deadly Druid of Haunted Abernethy Forest in good old Scotland," enthusiastically announced Fred Jones, the blonde, ascot wearing driver of the van.

"_De-de-de-deadly?_" stammered Shaggy Rogers, the scraggy goatee sporting gourmand, from the back of the van.

"_Ha-ha-ha-haunted?_" added his talking Great Dane life-partner, Scooby Doo, who was next to him.

"Oh don't be so superstitious, you two. It's only a local legend," said Velma Dinkley, the spectacles and turtleneck wearing brains of the group, from the passenger seat.

"Yeah, but what about that treasure map we found at the pub?" asked the very attractive nubile redhead of the group, Daphne Blake. She was sitting in between Fred and Velma. "Don't you find the idea of discovering riches beyond our wildest dreams exciting?"

"No way, man. Like no treasure is worth facing a deadly druid. It gives me the creeps!" Shaggy said, shivering at the mere thought. "Can't we like just go to another pub and order more haggis?"

"Mmmmm. Raggis! Rum!" Scooby agreed.

"Oh I think I know something you two would like more than haggis," Velma said. She then extracted an orange cardboard box from the glove compartment and held it up in front of the two. "Would you help us solve this mystery for a Scooby Snack?"

"Like no way," Shaggy said, shaking his head.

"Reah. Ro ray, Relma," Scooby agreed.

"What about two Scooby Snacks?" Velma asked seductively.

"All right, we'll do it!"

"Scooby Dooby Doo!" Velma proceeded to shake out four Scooby Snacks from the box, which were then ferociously consumed by Shaggy and Scooby.

"Fred, watch out!" Daphne screamed. A similar looking pink van sporting the Josie and the Pussycats logo had just sped through a red light at a three-way intersection and onto the highway the Mystery Machine was traveling down. As the pink van barreled straight for the Mystery Machine from the right, Fred pulled hard left on the steering wheel.

His quick response had saved them from colliding with the other van by mere inches. Unfortunately, due to the van being in the left lane of a British highway, it had also taken the Mystery Machine straight off the road. The van started rolling down the cliff side as the occupants inside screamed for their very lives. When the van hit the craggy shore below, the sound of a thunderous explosion roared down the highway.

"Oh, I wonder if they're setting off fireworks!" Melody exclaimed from the back of the Josie and the Pussycats tour van. She was sitting next to Alexander, who was shaking nervously while taking quick drinks from his Coca Cola like it was a bottle of Scotch. This was one ride he was not enjoying.

On top of Melody's juicy, round thighs was Sebastian. He had been comfortably nuzzled into her lap and enjoying a soothing petting from the blond beauty's skilled fingers for much of the trip. He had in fact been in such a trance from her touch that he hadn't really noticed the extremely dangerous driving the van was currently engaged in.

One seat up from Melody and Alexander were Josie and Alan. They were sitting scrunched up next to each other with Alan's large arm draped comfortably over Josie's petite shoulders. Josie was a bit concerned about the driving as well but felt safe in Alan's strong arm. It certainly gave her a good reason to snuggle up closer to him anyways.

In the front passenger seat was Valerie. She currently had a frown on her otherwise cute brown face. The source of her displeasure was the driving of the woman at the wheel, Alexandra.

Alexandra had offered to drive the group to the campsite as a gesture of kindness towards Alan, who usually did the driving for the band. She was hoping this would help her get on his good side in anticipation of the advances she would be able to make on him during the camping trip.

However, the plan, like all her plans, had backfired miserably. Josie, as Alexandra would certainly have done in the same situation, had simply used the opening to get in close to Alan. As Alexandra constantly eavesdropped in on the couple's near-cuddling with the use of her rearview mirror, the dark haired girl's temper continued to re-enflame to ever higher levels of animosity. This increasing rage coincided with the acceleration of her usual aggressive driving to near homicidal disregard for the rules of the road.

Alexandra then made a sharp turn on the cliff-bordering road much faster than she should have. Thankfully, the van was able to catch traction instead of wiping out over the bluff, the tires squealing loudly as it did so. "Weeeeeeee! This is fun!" Melody squealed excitedly.

"_Ahhhhhhhh!_" Alexander cried in terror.

"Would you watch it, Alexandra?" Valerie asked her. "You're going to kill us."

"Yeah, I'm certainly going to listen to backseat driving from you, Val. You're a terrible driver!"

"Right, my driving is worse than yours, Alexandra. You just blew three stop lights!"

"And if you were driving, it would take us three years to get there. You drive like a grandma!"

Valerie's expression changed from one of displeasure to one of absolute infuriation. "You know, all you do is complain. Complain about my driving, complain about our music, complain about our fans, complain about the hotel. Alan is our roadie, Alexander is our manager, but what exactly is it that you do? Why are you even here?"

Josie reached up and squeezed Valerie's shoulder. It was her way of telling her to tone it down a bit. Valerie simply ignored her and waited for an answer. "Hey, cats, can't we all get along?" Alexander chimed in, hoping to alleviate the tension as well, despite his sister's driving scaring the life out of him. He was also ignored. Alan decided not to come to her defense, and Melody was too confused about why everyone was acting so angry to say anything.

"It's called constructive criticism, all right? You guys would be lost without me."

"Right… There's nothing constructive about your criticism, Alexandra," Valerie said. "How exactly was trying to douse us with water for the umpteenth time constructive?"

"That was an accident, honest," Alexandra said. Sebastian snickered from Melody's lap. "Don't make me turn you into a black and white hand bag, you stupid fur ball!" Sebastian gulped and buried his head in between Melody's luscious, milky thighs.

"And another thing," Valerie went on, "if you hate our music so much, then why are you wearing panties from our line of underwear?"

"What panties I wear is my own private business, you weirdo!"

"_Hmph!_ Well, it still makes no sense."

"I have the same pair of panties," Melody added, sounding much more happy and relaxed than anyone else in the vehicle. "I would've worn them today too if I didn't forget to wear underwear today," she explained with a giggle.

Suddenly, all of the Coca-Cola that Alexander had just sucked down from his bottle exploded out of his mouth. The syrupy liquid sprayed across the back of Josie and Alan's heads. "Ha ha, sorry," Alexander apologized embarrassedly as Josie and Alan turned back to give him annoyed glares.

"Good thing I'm wearing shorts today, huh? _Ha ha ha ha he he he._"

Josie half whispered to her, "Melody, that's too much information."

"You think so?" she asked back curiously, not understanding what was wrong with it. Alexander coughed nervously into his hand.

"Yeah, you're going to give Alex a heart attack," Valerie said dryly.

Suddenly, Melody looked concerned. "Oh no, should we call an ambulance?" she asked, thinking he was having an actual heart attack.

"I'll be fine, really."

"Are you sure? Do you need mouth to mouth resuscitation?"

"Yes!"

"Alexander, behave," Josie chided him.

"Yeah, Brother, lay off!" Alexandra barked at him. She honestly didn't know why she cared, but for some reason, she didn't approve of him trying to take advantage of Melody's naiveté like that.

"It was just a joke, everyone, really. I'm fine, Melody," he said before laughing nervously.

"Hmmm, I don't get it," Melody said, putting her hand on her forehead. She had seemingly missed the punch line of Alexander's supposed joke.

As the group continued to banter away, Alexandra uncharacteristically became quiet. Normally, Valerie's comments wouldn't have affected her. However, while she continued to spy through the rearview mirror, she had caught a glance of Josie and Alan momentarily holding hands and interlocking fingers. This made her grimace. She grimaced even more when a few minutes later she spotted Josie running her fingers up and down Alan's thigh.

Despite the danger inherent in Alexandra's extremely aggressive driving, the group managed to make it safely to the campsite. Alexander paid the fee, and Alexandra parked the van at their reserved spot.

The van had been lightly packed in anticipation of the trip. They had only brought with them sleeping bags, some chopped wood for a camp fire, some food for a cookout later that night, and a few other items. Since it was in the middle of the blistering heat of July and the forecast had been for clear skies, the group had decided to really rough it without the use of tents. Alexandra had of course protested this decision, wishing to get Alan alone in a tent with her, but she had been out-voted.

The group, however, did not spend much time at the campsite. Everyone, save for Alexander, was very excited about the prospect of discovering the supposed buried treasure. In short time, Josie, acting as navigator, had found the actual location in the forest depicted by the starting point of the dotted line on the treasure map. Remarkably, the line appeared to correspond to an actual trail through the woods.

All six youths, plus one cat, started trekking down the trail. The scenery was indeed beautiful. The bright Scottish sun shining down through the leaves of the tall thin trees combined with the tranquil sounds of the forest made for a very pleasant hike.

However, after about twenty minutes of hiking, it became apparent to Josie that the map was less than completely accurate. "I think this map be a bit off," she remarked. "There was supposed to be a turn towards some hills a while ago. But I think we've been traveling in a straight line for far too long, and I don't see any hills."

"Maybe we should ask that guy," Alan said, spotting an old man walking in their direction from far down the trail. He had a thick white beard and wore a green uniform with a wide brimmed hat. "He looks like a forest ranger."

When he came near, Josie asked him, "Excuse me, sir, do you know how to find the Woodcock Hills?"

"Aye," he said in his very thick and rather creepy sounding accent. "Ye can use the neist trail aff to the left aboot fower hunder meters aheid."

"Thanks!" Josie said.

As Josie turned, however, the man grabbed onto her shoulder. "But I wadna gae up that way, lassie," he said in an utterly disturbing voice.

"Gay up that way?" Melody asked before snickering like a child.

"He means go, Melody. He wouldn't go up that way," Valerie told her, a bit embarrassed. "That's how some Scottish people say it. It's called a brogue."

"Ohhhhh," Melody said. The old man just continued giving the group an unnerving stare with his dark beady eyes.

"Why shouldn't we go that way, sir?" Alan asked.

"That pairt o' the forest be cursed. Cursed by the ghost o' the Deadly Druid."

"You really believe a ghost haunts the forest?" Valerie asked skeptically.

"Aye," he said again in his eerie tone of voice.

"What about those rumors of buried treasure?" Josie asked. "People must be constantly going up there to look for it."

"Thare's na treasure, my wee lass."

"_Hmmm_," Valerie said.

"I'se just say I canna stap ye lads frae hikin up that way, but an I were ye, I wad gae back till whar ye cam frae," he said. He then marched off in the direction he had been walking without another word.

The group just stood speechless for a moment before Alexander spoke up, "I could barely understand that guy, but I think he was telling us to go back. So yeah, great idea!" He then started to hurriedly sprint in the other direction.

Alan grabbed the collar of his shirt, forcing him to run in place for a few seconds. "We came this far. We may as well check it out. All of us."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Alexander moaned. "I wish my lawyer was here. This has to be some kind of kidnapping charge."

The group marched on ahead until they found the second trail the ranger had referred to. As they traveled deeper and deeper into the woods through the new path, the trees became even taller and more closely packed. The extra shade made the scenery much darker, and the forest suddenly took on a more ominous and sinister quality.

Josie, realizing the darkness presented an opportunity, stealthily slinked her wrist around Alan's arm as they walked along. Alexandra quickly noticed. Not to be outdone, she went and took Alan's other arm quite forcefully as she growled at the redhead. Josie scowled back. Wishing to avoid a confrontation, Alan lowered himself to fiddle with his already tied shoe-lace. While doing so, he had unlatched both females from his arms.

Valerie, who had been watching the three, just shook her head in amusement. She then commented, "You know, I've been thinking about this whole thing, and it doesn't make sense."

"You mean about the ghost?" Josie asked.

"No, not that. Legends of ghosts are very common in the U.K., and druids more than likely lived in this part of Scotland at some point during the Roman Empire. A legend about the ghost of a druid seems to make sense. However, that old man said there wasn't any treasure. Something seems off."

"Maybe it's a secret treasure," Melody said.

"You could be right, Melody, but the druids were Celtic religious men, judges, and teachers. I don't see why they would bury treasure. I mean they're not pirates."

"No, really, Val?" Alexandra asked mockingly.

"Yeah, really, Alexandra," she answered dryly.

"Maybe it's pirate booty then," Melody said. "Arrrrrrr, matey!"

"You already have more than enough booty," Alexandra smarted off.

"Thanks, Alexandra!" Melody chirped.

"That wasn't a compliment!"

"_He he he he he!_"

Suddenly, the group met a fork in the road where the path split off into two different trails, one going to the left and one going to the right. "What gives?" Alexander asked.

"Hmm, let me see," Josie said before pulling the map back out and unfolding it. She then gave a confused expression. "This intersection isn't on the map."

"Let me see that!" Alexandra barked, ripping the map away from her. She looked at it for a moment and grimaced, trying to figure it out. She couldn't see an intersection either but still remarked, "Oh, I see."

"Really?" Valerie asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, both ways can work. I say we split up. Alan and I will go that way," she said, pointing to the right. "And Josie and everyone else can go that way," she said, moving her finger to left.

Josie frowned. Thankfully for her, Alan spoke up. "I think we should break up into more equal numbers for safety," he said, taking his usual role as self-appointed leader. "Josie, Valerie, and I will go the right. Alexander, Alexandra, Melody, and Sebastian will go to the left. And we'll all meet back at camp in an hour."

Alexandra opened her mouth, "But…"

"Thanks for the help, Alexandra," Josie cut her off while ripping the map back out of her hands. She then hooked her arm around Alan and started strutting off to the right.

"Ohhhhh," Alexandra muttered to herself.

"Come on, Alexandra, lets gay up this way," Melody said to her. Josie and Valerie snickered, hearing the comment, as they continued to walk further away.

Alexandra rolled her eyes harshly. "Just stick to American English, dumb dumb."

"_He he._ Ok." Alexandra then started walking along side Melody and Sebastian down the path.

Very reluctantly, Alexander began following the two women and one cat from behind. "How about we just go back to the campsite? I think we've gone far enough."

"Shut up, Chicken Little! There's no way I'm letting Josie beat me to that treasure!"

"Jeez, Sis. You need to calm down a bit," he told her.

"Says you!"

"_He he hoo hoo!_ You're so funny when you're mad, Alexandra," Melody said.

Alexandra turned to look at the cute, smiling blond. "Am not!" she protested.

"Am so," Melody cheerfully retorted before giving Alexandra an even bigger smile.

For a moment, Alexandra considered shooting back with something harsh. However, Melody staring her down with that utterly joyous and adorable smile was somehow affecting her ability to think of a comeback. Finally, after an awkward silence, Alexandra grunted, "Whatever."

For some reason, she wasn't filled with murderous rage anymore. However, it wasn't long before the familiar feelings of depression began to re-engulf her.

"Why do I always end up paired with you two?" Alexandra sighed loudly. "Why can't I ever be paired up with Alan? It always has to be Josie… Always."

"I don't know. Why am I always paired up with you, Alexandra?" Melody asked. "_Hmmmm?_"

"Maybe it's because opposites attract," Alexander said, finally catching up to the two girls. "Melody is nice and sweet, and Alexandra is Alexandra."

Melody cracked up loudly into incessant little giggles. "She so is."

Alexandra wasn't amused. "Watch it, Brother. You don't want to me to hurt you. And as far as this being a group of opposite personalities, if this was the Wizard of Oz, you'd be the Cowardly Lion."

"I'd rather be the Cowardly Lion than not have a heart, Miss Tin Girl," he shot back.

"Yeah right," Alexandra snarled. "Being the most beautiful and the cutest of the group, I'm obviously a natural choice for Dorothy," she said haughtily.

"Oh, I want to be Toto!" Melody chimed in.

"No, you'd be the Scarecrow, dumb dumb," Alexandra told her. "Sebastian would be Toto." Sebastian meowed and shook his head. He didn't like the idea of playing a dog.

"But I wanna be Toto! Why would I be the Scarecrow?"

"Because you don't have a brain."

"Hey, I have a brain! At least last time I checked," she said before tapping on her skull with her knuckles a few times.

"Is it still in there?" Alexander asked teasingly.

"I think so," Melody answered before giggling some more.

"You know it would probably be a good thing for the rest of us girls if you pretended like you had one once in a while. You know the dumb blond is the most sexist stereotype there is, right?"

"How can a stereo be sexy? Does it need good curves?"

"I said you're a stereotype!"

"Silly, Alexandra, I'm not a type of stereo. I'm a Pussycat," she said before snickering at the thought.

"Ugh!" Alexandra grunted. "I wish I had an 8-track to shove in you right now."

"_Oooh,_ that would feel funny!" Alexander gave Melody a curious look, his interest suddenly peaked. He was glad his thick sunglasses hid his complete expression. Alexandra simply rolled her eyes again. "But if I'm a stereo, then you're a skunk!"

"I am not a skunk!" Alexandra yelled.

"But you look like one," Melody retorted before giggling.

"She's got you there, Sis," Alexander said.

"Shut up, oh dear brother of mine," she shot back before swinging and punching him hard in the arm.

"_Ouch!_" he yelped. "Hey, that was uncalled for!"

"I warned you! Deal with it!" she snapped back. "Anyways, a girl as utterly gorgeous as me could never resemble a lowly disgusting skunk."

"But you have the same hair," Melody said, pointing to the white streak that ran down Alexandra's shiny black head of hair. "Sebastian too." She then placed a finger on her chin, "Gee, I wonder if you both go to the same hairdresser."

"Yeah, that's it," Alexandra said, deciding to side step the true explanation for the resemblance. Sebastian meowed loudly in agreement. "But Sebastian and I do not look like those disgusting, smelly rodents. My white streak is elegant. It accentuates my lovely dark locks," she said, running her fingers through her hair over her head to further drive home the point.

"But I think skunks are just so cute!"

"You're not helping," Alexandra said. A faint rosiness on her formerly completely pale cheeks contradicted her words. "And what kind of girl finds skunks cute?"

"I do! I think they're just adorable. Oh, I wish I had one as a pet."

"You're crazy. Skunks are stinky, crass, and mean. They're pretty much the biggest jerks of the animal kingdom."

Uncharacteristically, Melody seemed a bit incensed at the comment. "There's no such thing as a mean animal, Alexandra. Some animals may seem mean, but all they need is some loving and petting. I give them that, and they always come around to me," she explained, now sounding serene and happy again.

"You wouldn't want to pet a skunk, Melody," Alexander told her. "Believe me, you'll get a nasty surprise," he said, patting Alexandra playfully on the head. Alexandra again swung around and hit him in the arm, this time twice as hard.

"_Ouch!_ You're going to leave a mark!"

"Good!"

They kept on traveling down the trail. It seemed to drag on and on. Still, Alexandra forged ahead. She was absolutely determined to find the treasure before Josie did.

Suddenly, the group heard noise from far off in the distance. It was a loud clacking that kept echoing through the dark woods. "What's that?" Alexander asked, a cold chill running down his spine.

"Whatever it is, it's getting closer," Alexandra remarked. The clacking was indeed getting louder.

"Oh, there must be danger," Melody said, lifting up her blond locks to show her cute wiggling ears. Alexander gulped very loudly. "Maybe they're wrong though. It just sounds like a cute horsey," she deduced.

Indeed, the group could now make out the distinct sound of galloping hooves. As the clacking became louder and louder, they just stood still and looked off to the left through the trees in the direction of the noise. Suddenly, a black horse appeared several hundred feet away. On top of the horse, holding the reigns with his hairy hands, was the same man wearing a white hooded robe from earlier that day. The hooded man and the horse then crossed the trail right in front of the group.

"_Ahhhhhhhh! It's the deadly druid!_" Alexander wailed. Waving his hands over his head in sheer terror, he turned and ran off the path deep into the woods. The horse, however, just continued to gallop deeper into the forest on the other side.

"Yeah, leave the women here, you coward!" Alexandra screamed at her brother. "We're supposed to be the scared ones!"

"I'm not scared, Alexandra. You're here," Melody told her.

"Huh?" Alexandra asked, taken aback a bit.

"You're always so brave and confident. You make me feel safe," Melody explained before smiling warmly at her.

"Well, um, you should be… Yeah, uh, anyways, let's go find this treasure already, stupid druid or no stupid druid. I don't want to be stuck in this dingy forest all night."

"Ok," Melody chirped.

Alexandra then turned to her tuxedo cat on the ground. "Sebastian, you go track down Alexander and lead him back to camp. God knows he'll probably get lost with his sense of direction."

Sebastian shook his head up and down. He then trotted off into the forest after Alexander.

Back on the other trail, Alan, Josie, and Valerie continued to stroll along. Their walk had so far been uneventful compared to that of the other group. That didn't stop Josie and Alan from thoroughly enjoying it however. They had seemed to be getting closer and closer to each other with each passing second.

Watching them, Valerie smirked. She thought that if something were to suddenly appear in front of them on the trail, they would walk straight into it. They were certainly staring at each other much more than their surroundings.

"Say, if you two want to go on ahead without me, I'd be cool with that," she told them.

"Don't you want to come with, Val?" Alan asked her.

"Stop playing coy, you two," she said teasingly. "I've seen the way you two have been looking at each other. I know when I'm being a third wheel."

Josie giggled and blushed a bit. "You sure you'll be ok though? That druid may be lurking around somewhere."

"Don't worry about me. I'm a big girl. Besides, I want to get a closer look at this device," she said, referring to the druid's "laser gun" that she was holding and had been examining during most of the hike. Thinking that it may be of some use to them somehow, she had brought it with. "The technology is just fascinating."

"Well, all right," Josie agreed. "Thanks, Val, you're the best."

"Don't mention it. You two just don't have too much fun now," she teased again. Josie giggled even louder.

"See you back at camp, Val," Alan said.

"Bye!" Josie said.

Valerie waved to the two lovebirds and then started trekking in the opposite direction. She walked for a long while but stopped when she spotted something. It was far off in the distance up on the edge of a tall hill to her right. It was also moving. Squinting, she could see a horse and a white robed man riding on top of it. "Well, hello, Mr. Druid," she said. She then flipped the switch on the gun, aimed it in his direction, and pressed the trigger. The stone on the back of the device glowed an eerie neon green as the dial on the gun ran to the "V". "Interesting," she remarked.

Sometime later, Alexandra and Melody were still trudging through the trail. It had been most of the same: trees, grass, shrubbery, some fallen leaves, and not much else.

The only difference was the path had been traveling up an incline for some time. Alexandra was beginning to get frustrated. "Is this stupid trail going to go anywhere? And Josie just had to take the map!"

"Well, it has to go somewhere. Everywhere goes somewhere," Melody said before emitting another trademark giggle.

"More words of wisdom from the giggling guru."

"Guru? Is that when you dip the bread and vegetables and stuff into cheese? Golly, I just love cheese!"

"That's fondue, you goofball." Alexandra then heard what sounded like a moan from deep in the forest. "_Shhhh,_ I hear something."

"Really?" Melody asked at her regular volume.

Alexandra put her hand over Melody's lips. "Quiet, ding-dong. _Shhhh_, listen." Indeed, both women heard the faint sounds of human voices. Some sounded like giggles. Others sounded like moans. Alexandra took her hand and moved back Melody's hair to behind her ear. It wasn't wiggling.

She then walked off the trail and into the woods in the direction of the voices. Melody followed closely behind. After walking some distance, they reached the edge of the very steep hill they were on. Alexandra stopped and stood behind a tall tree that was near the edge. She then peeked around the corner.

She grimaced deeply the moment she saw them. Deep down in a valley nestled in between two hills were Josie and Alan. However, currently, they were more like a singular mass on the ground. With Josie straddled on top of him and their lips locked together, the almost completely undressed couple was rather preoccupied.

"I can't… I can't believe they're doing that... _That Josie…_" she darkly muttered. Her voice then cracked a bit. "Buh… but it was Alan's idea to split up with her, wasn't it?" she realized. Melody looked around the tree and saw as well. Immediately, she understood. She suddenly looked very concerned as she watched Alexandra's condition continue to deteriorate.

Alexandra took her eyes away. She then began to stagger back towards the trail with her head hanging low. She made it half way back but then began to collapse. A tree in front of her managed to break her fall. Melody ran up to her, grabbed onto her from behind, and held her. Alexandra just rested her head against the tree trunk as the tears began to pour down her cheeks uncontrollably.

"Alexandra, it's going to be ok," Melody said, trying to sound comforting. "It's going to be all right."

Alexandra didn't respond but instead started sobbing miserably. Finally, she asked, "Why am I not good enough for him? Why?"

"You are," Melody answered.

"It's not true… _not true at all..._" She then went on sobbing.

Melody frowned. She couldn't stand seeing Alexandra like this. It hurt her deeply. She then thought for a moment about what to do. Finally, the answer came to her, and she tapped on Alexandra's shoulder. Alexandra ignored her, but Melody persisted and kept tapping. "Leave me alone," she sobbed. Melody then put her hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle tug. "What do you want?" she spat off, half angry and half grief-stricken. Finally, Alexandra turned around, and that's when Melody struck.

It was very quick, and Alexandra was caught completely off guard. When Melody's supple lips planted against Alexandra's, her eyes widened in shock. However, that feeling of surprise was quickly washed over by something else. It was a feeling that Alexandra wasn't familiar with. For a moment, it was like she lost control and melted into the kiss. As Alexandra unconsciously closed her eyes, Melody stayed persistent. She continued to move her lips against Alexandra's. She pushed her lower lip deeper and deeper into Alexandra's mouth while also pushing Alexandra's small frame up against the tree with her body.

However, just as quickly as that feeling had come, it was overridden by the realization of what was happening. Alexandra opened her eyes and pulled her lips away from Melody. Melody seemed a little disappointed it had ended but still had a pleasant look on her face. She still looked concerned for Alexandra, but she now had a slightly impish smile as well. Alexandra's expression, on the other hand, was one painted with confusion, shock, embarrassment, and a few other emotions she didn't recognize. Those last emotions were expressed by the bright red blush currently lighting up her tear-stained cheeks.

"_Did you… did you just kiss me?_" Alexandra was finally able to blurt out. Her heart was racing so fast and she was breathing so heavy that it was almost too hard for her to speak.

"Yeah," Melody answered very cheerfully.

"_Wh-wh-why?_" she stammered.

"Well, you just looked so sad, and I was thinking of a way to cheer you up. Then I decided I wanted to kiss you, so I kissed you. Is that weird?" Melody asked with complete childlike innocence.

"Yes!"

"Well, people do tell me I'm kinda weird. _He he!_" she giggled, seemingly not understanding why Alexandra had become so flustered.

"Just _um…_ don't do anything weird like that again, ok?"

"He he. Well, if you say so, Alexandra. I just hope you feel better. I don't like seeing you sad. It makes me sad too."

Alexandra didn't respond and started walking back towards the trail. When she got back on it, she started walking back in the direction of camp.

"Aren't we going to go find the treasure?" Melody asked.

Slowly, Alexandra turned to face her. Just seeing Melody look at her with those big blue eyes made Alexandra blush deeply again. Along with the blush, she gave Melody a very shy expression. That look caused the blond girl's lip to edge up into a warm, inviting smirk. However, Alexandra quickly shrugged it off and turned to look forward again. "We're going back to camp," she droned.

"Why?"

"Because I don't care about the damn treasure. Stupid Josie can have it. Stupid Josie and Alan." She had tried to say that with anger. However, it came out sounding much more pathetic. The usual fire that was inside Alexandra had been completely snuffed out. Again, Melody frowned as she studied Alexandra's condition. She was becoming very concerned for her wellbeing.

To Be Continued


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in anyway.

Author's Notes: If you read, please review!

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 3

It was now getting late, and only a small portion of the sun remained above the old Scottish hills of Abernethy forest. As the sun slowly set, Melody, Valerie, Alexander, and an uncharacteristically quiet and aloof Alexandra sat in some fold-out chairs they had brought in the van. Sitting next to them on the ground was Sebastian.

Sebastian had indeed led Alexander out of the forest and back to camp just as his master had instructed. The two were then reunited with Valerie and later with Alexandra and Melody. Together, now, they were all waiting impatiently at the campsite for Josie and Alan's return.

"Maybe we should stop waiting for them and start the fire already," Alexander suggested nervously. "The sun's almost down, and I really don't want to be stuck in the dark with that hooded nutcase running around."

"Maybe you're right, but I'm sure they'll be back soon," Valerie said calmly. She was, in fact, still examining the laser-gun like device given to them by the druid and trying to figure out how the engineering marvel worked. She didn't seem all that concerned about Alan and Josie's well being.

"How can you be so sure?" Alexander asked her.

"I just know. Trust me. They're absolutely fine."

"They were probably snagged by that maniac. _Ohhhh,_" he wailed.

"_He he._ If Alan and Josie did meet him, I hope they invited him to the cook-out," Melody said cheerfully, "and then maybe he can introduce us to the Ghostly Trio and Captain Kirk."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Alexander asked her, freaked out.

"Well, where else would a ghostie get a fancy ray-gun to give us? It has to be the Starship Enterprise."

"You watch way too much TV, Melody," Valerie said, shaking her head a bit, "and I already told you. He's not a ghost. He's a druid."

"It's not nice to call people poo-heads, Valerie, even if they are ghosts."

"I said druid, Melody. Druid," she explained, exasperated. "Dru, like you drew a picture on a piece of paper. Not poo. Dru-id."

"Hmm. Why would they call him a drew-head? It's not like anyone drew his head. This isn't a cartoon or anything."

Valerie sighed loudly. "Just forget I said anything, Melody."

"Don't worry, I forgot already. _Ha ha ha ha hoo hoo hoo._"

Alexander glanced over at Alexandra. She had been silent nearly the entire time she had been back at the campsite. She didn't even seem to be following the conversation. Instead, she was merely staring ahead at the setting sun over the horizon, looking miserably depressed. "Sis, you sure you're all right?" he asked her again, concerned.

Alexandra looked for a moment like she was about to cry, but she then forced a harsh scowl out of the contours of her face. "You ask me that one more time, and I'm gonna clobber you! You hear me?" she snapped at him. She, however, seemed much tenser than when she gave out her usual verbal abuse.

"All right, all right, jeez!" Sebastian then went up to Alexandra's leg and nuzzled against it. Alexandra bitterly pushed him away. Melody looked over at Alexandra and frowned again. She could tell she was in pain, and she didn't like seeing that at all.

Finally, two figures appeared over the orange horizon. One had a massive muscular frame, and the other had a much more petite, feminine one. The entire group, save for Alexandra, got up from their seats to greet Alan and Josie.

"Um, sorry about the wait guys," Josie apologized with a faint rosiness painting her cheeks. "We _uhhh…_"

"Got lost," Alan said, coming in for the save.

"Yeah, really lost," Josie said before laughing awkwardly.

Alexandra stared up at the two with a blank expression as her lower lip quivered fiercely.

"So did you guys find the treasure?" Alexander asked them.

"Nope. Sad to say we didn't find it," Alan answered.

"What about the treasure in Josie's box?" Alexandra spat off, finally standing up from her chair. Josie and Alan simply stood there, grinning nervously, as Alexandra gave them both the nastiest look she could muster from deep down in her soul. She then stomped off away from them. Alexander looked dumb-founded by her outburst. Valerie, on the other hand, was trying hard to stop herself from laughing.

Melody looked at Josie curiously. "Where's this box?"

"There's no box," Josie answered nervously.

Melody stepped closer to Josie and began to inspect her body with her eyes, trying to see if she was hiding it somewhere. "Can you show me this box? I want to see the treasure inside it."

"I said there's no box, Melody!" she answered again, red faced, as a large bead of sweat slid down her forehead.

Alexandra stopped walking a good distance away from the group. It wasn't far enough away that she couldn't see them, but it was far enough that she wouldn't have to interact with them anymore. She sat down in front of a tree, rested her back on its trunk, and hugged her knees. It wasn't long before the tears began flowing down her cheeks again. Telling off Alan and Josie without pathetically breaking down in front of them had taken all the strength she could muster. At this point, however, that strength was gone. She felt like there was nothing left for her with this group of people anymore. It was all over.

The group quickly continued chatting as if nothing had happened. The only one who had seemed to have noticed Alexandra's state at all was Melody, who kept glancing back at her. Everyone else had written off her outburst as just more of her usual boorish behavior.

"So you two think we can go look for the treasure again tomorrow?" Valerie asked Alan and Josie. "That is if you can stop yourselves from becoming preoccupied long enough," she asked before snickering a bit.

"Knock it off, Val," Josie said, annoyed.

Valerie snickered some more. "Or get _lost,_" she said, making quotation marks with her fingers as she said the word. "I know how confusing those marked trails can be."

"_Shut up, Val!_" Josie couldn't have been more embarrassed.

"Well, I think it's a good idea," Alan agreed with Valerie. "We can do it before we set out to drive to the next gig."

"No way!" Alexander exclaimed. "I saw that spooky druid, man! There's no way I'm going back up that trail. Just no way!"

"You saw the druid?" Josie asked, surprised.

"Yup. We sure saw the drew-head," Melody answered, "and he was on this cute horsey!"

"I saw him too on the way back to camp," Valerie added. "I don't think he saw me though."

"Did he do anything?" Alan asked.

"He just rode by on his horsey. Maybe he was going to meet Mr. Spock so they could beam him up Scotty," Melody surmised.

"I think we should just go back to the hotel. It's probably too dangerous out here," Alexander said.

"Chill it, Alex," Alan told him. "Girls, what do you think? Should we go out again tomorrow morning?"

"I'm game if you are, Alan," Josie said.

"Me too," Valerie agreed. "This druid doesn't scare me."

"Well, it sounds like fun, but I don't know if Alexandra would want to go," Melody explained.

"Well, I thought Alexandra wasn't scared, but still that's four against two," Alan said. "You're out-voted, Alex."

"Meow!" Sebastian didn't like being kept out of group decisions.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sebastian," Alan apologized. "How do you vote?"

Sebastian shook his furry head up and down.

"Well, there you have it. We're going."

"Great, our fate has been determined by a cat. Thank goodness for democracy," Alexander whined. "What happened to the idea of the manager being in charge?" Everyone ignored him.

With that matter now settled, the group started the fire and the cookout. Everyone enjoyed the marshmallows, hotdogs, and sausages that were cooked over the open flames. Everyone, that is, except for Alexandra. The others had invited her over several times, but she had refused to budge from her spot on the ground a good distance away from the fire.

"Say, is something wrong with Alexandra?" Josie asked Melody and Valerie. "She's been sitting over there all night."

"Hmm, you're right. It did seem awfully peaceful for some reason," Valerie remarked.

"I don't think she's doing too well," Melody said, sounding upset. She then gobbled the last of the charred hot dog off of the twig she was holding before she frowned again.

"Oh, really?" Josie asked. "What happened?"

Josie and Valerie stared down Melody, waiting for an explanation. "_Well, um,_ she read her horoscope today, and it said something bad, and then she crossed paths with a black cat."

"Doesn't she do that every day?" Valerie asked. "Sebastian is a black cat."

"Yes?" She stood there and gave the two a stupid smile.

"I'll go talk to her," Josie said. As she turned to leave, Melody grabbed a hold of her shoulder.

"No, I'll do it," Melody told her.

"It's ok, Melody. I can talk to her."

"I said I'll do it." Josie turned to look at her and was taken aback by the utterly serious expression on her face.

"Uh, ok, Melody," Josie agreed nervously.

"Good." Melody then gave her trademark smile again and walked off.

"What was that about?" Valerie asked.

"I don't know," Josie said, still a bit shaken.

Melody went over to where the bag of marshmallows was on the ground. She took one of the pieces of fluff out of the bag and poked it through the end of her twig. She then let it roast over the flames of the fire for a while until it was nice and brown. Once she had gotten it to where she wanted it, she removed it from the fire and blew out a little flame on the marshmallow with one small puff of air. She then took the twig and marshmallow and walked all the way over to where Alexandra was still sitting silently.

"Hi, Alexandra."

The only response from Alexandra was silence. In fact, she didn't even bother to look up at her. She just kept staring blankly at the now very dark ground.

"I know you're not feeling well. I don't blame you after what happened today. But I really like seeing you happy, so I brought you a roasted marshmallow to help cheer you up."

Alexandra finally tipped her head upwards and saw the impish blonde girl smiling warmly at her and holding out a roasted marshmallow on a stick. "No thanks," she finally said emotionlessly.

"Would you like a roasted wiener instead? I can make you one."

"I'm just not hungry."

"You haven't eaten since lunch time. Come on, try a marshmallow. It's yummy."

"I told you I don't want it."

"_Pleeeeeeease?_" she begged cutely while staring down at Alexandra with puppy dog eyes. Alexandra looked into her eyes and jerked her head back in response to their over the top cuteness. "_Pleeeeeeease?_"

"I said no," Alexandra relented.

"_Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?_" she asked, intensifying her cute stare even more.

"All right, all right. Just shut up already," she said, finally giving in.

"Yay!" Melody held out the stick with the gooey morsel of melting marshmallow on the end of it in front of her mouth. Reluctantly, Alexandra leaned forward and opened her lips around the melting mass of sugary fluff. She slid it off the stick with her lips and then began to slowly chew it.

Melody came and sat down very close to her. "Good?" Melody asked with big eyes.

"It's ok, I guess," Alexandra said, still sounding depressed.

"I know what happened was bad, but I don't like seeing you sad, Alexandra. Is there anything I can do to help make you feel better?"

"Don't worry about it. You won't have to be around me much longer anyways."

"What?" Melody asked, sounding shocked.

"You heard me. I think what Valerie said was right."

"What was right?"

"That I don't belong with you guys. I've been touring with you for almost four years now, and nothing has changed. Dear Alan still won't give me the time of day. Stupid Josie has him wrapped around her finger, and no matter what I do or how hard I try, I can never change it. I try and try, and it never does any good. Today made me realize it even more."

"That's not true. Even if Alan doesn't like you like he likes Josie, I still think you belong with us, Alexandra."

"You sure you're not just saying that? You probably really think the same as Valerie, that I'm just a pathetic hanger-on."

"Of course you belong. You're my friend. It wouldn't be the same without you. You're so funny. It would be boring. Valerie was just mad you made fun of her driving. And you're not pathetic. Nothing about you is pathetic. You're _Alexandra Cabot,_" she said, changing the tone of her voice to sound all pompous and regal as she pronounced her name. It was her attempt to emulate some of Alexandra's ridiculous self-confidence that was currently nowhere to be seen. "And you're not a hanger. Those go in your closet, silly!"

"I said a hanger-on, Melody, not a hanger," she said, annoyed.

"Oh, a hanger-on! Well, I love being a hanger-on!"

Alexandra raised her eyebrow. "What? You do?"

"Yeah! I'll show you." Suddenly, Melody draped her arm over Alexandra. She then scooted closer to her and wrapped her other arm around her front. Next, she tilted her head down and nuzzled her cheek into Alexandra's shoulder. "See?" Melody purred.

Alexandra's pale cheeks suddenly lit up like traffic lights, and her heart began to beat wildly out of control. Melody only intensified the sensation by pulling her closer into her arms and slowly nuzzling her cheek into the bare skin of her shoulder on either side of the strap of her dress with a nice gentle, soothing rhythm.

The feeling of Melody holding her and touching her like that created a wonderful feeling of warmth that irradiated through Alexandra's body to her inner core. She had only felt like this a few times before. Those were the times she was able to be close to Alan. However, those moments were brief and fleeting. They weren't nearly as long as this, and they certainly weren't as intimate and warm either. It felt absolutely wonderful.

However, Alexandra suddenly became extremely self conscious. Melody was a girl. How could she have forgotten that? What if someone were to see them? As Melody continued to snuggle against her and purr even more contently than Sebastian did when his tummy was scratched, Alexandra scanned around the campfire that was only a short distance away. Josie and Alan seemed to be too engrossed in each other to notice much else. Valerie was lying on her back, gazing up at the stars, and Alexander was staring blankly ahead. Due to his shades, she couldn't tell exactly what he was looking at. She then noticed Valerie shifting on the ground like she was about to get up, and that sent shivers of panic down her spine.

"Ummm… Melody, someone might… you know… see us," she whispered awkwardly.

"Am I being weird again?"

"Yeah."

Melody giggled. "I'm sorry," she apologized almost gleefully as she took her arms and cheek off of the blushing dark haired girl. "Sometimes it's hard for me not to be weird."

"Tell me about it." For some reason, that comment sounded less sarcastic than she had intended.

"Are you happy yet, Alexandra?" Melody stared into Alexandra's eyes, and Alexandra stared back. While she wasn't nearly as gloomy as she was just a few moments ago, especially with her deeply blushing cheeks, she didn't look exactly cheerful.

"Don't worry about it, all right. It's not your problem."

"Oh, I know what will cheer you up. More marshmallows!" Melody hopped up and ran back over to the bag of marshmallows. She removed two from the bag and then searched around until she found another twig. She proceeded to poke the fluffy white treats into the two twigs and then gleefully held both of them over the fire to roast.

Alexandra stared at the smiling blonde roasting the marshmallows over the dancing flames. She looked about as joyous as someone who had just won the lottery. Alexandra tried to think back to a time when she wasn't this gleeful. She couldn't think of one example offhand. She honestly felt a bit jealous of her being so happy all the time. While Alexandra did often blanket herself in an extreme self confidence that often came off as obnoxious arrogance, some days it was just too hard for her to keep up the facade. This was certainly one of those days.

A few minutes later, Melody returned with two freshly roasted marshmallows. Melody plopped back down next to Alexandra and then stuck one of the sticks with the melting blobs of goo in front of her face. "Here you go, Alexandra."

Alexandra leaned forward and snatched the marshmallow off of the stick. She then chewed the sugary morsel in her mouth.

"Does it taste yummy?" Melody asked.

For a moment, Alexandra considered scolding her for letting the marshmallow burn too much. However, she changed her mind. Receiving attention from someone else like this felt good enough to her on its own. Alan certainly had not done anything nearly this nice for her during the time that she had known him. When she finished chewing, she remarked, "Not bad. Thanks, Melody."

"_He he,_ you're welcome." The wide smile on Melody's face showed how pleased she was with the reaction. She then stuck the other stick in front of Alexandra's mouth. "And here's the other one."

Instead, Alexandra snatched the stick out her hand. "Well, I think you should have one too. I'm not that greedy for crying out loud."

"Oh, ok. Well, I do love marshmallows!"

Alexandra turned the twig around and pointed the marshmallow towards Melody's supple lips. "Say ah, Melody."

Melody followed instruction and opened her mouth wide. "Ahhhhhhhh." Alexandra smirked as she slowly pushed the marshmallow inside her mouth. "Ok, the train's in the station," she told her playfully.

Melody opened her eyes and then chomped down on the stick. Unfortunately, she was a bit too enthusiastic. Not only did she bite off the marshmallow, but some of the stick as well. The stick and marshmallow then became lodged in her throat after she absent mindedly tried to swallow it whole. Melody placed her hands around her neck and started choking.

"Melody?" Alexandra asked her. The blonde girl kept gagging, and her face that was formerly full of vibrant life started to go blue. "Melody! Melody!" Alexandra shrieked, grabbing onto her shoulders. Alan, Josie, Alexander, Valerie, and Sebastian ran over from the fire to see what was the matter.

"Oh my god, she's choking!" Josie shouted.

"What should we do?" Valerie asked frantically.

Suddenly, a light went off in Alexandra's head. First, she pulled the choking blonde up from the ground. Next, she pushed herself up against her back and shapely rump. She then quickly wrapped her arms around her waist, grabbed a hold of her own balled fist, and pushed back hard with both hands into her abdomen.

The stick and the marshmallow suddenly popped out of her throat and flew out of her mouth to the grass below. Melody dropped to her knees and started gasping for air. Finely able to breathe again, she sucked in several deep breaths greedily. No longer starved of oxygen, some life returned to her cute cheeks.

"Oh thank god," Alexandra said relieved. "I thought I was going to lose you, dumb dumb."

Suddenly, tears started gushing out of the corners of Melody's eyes. She then grabbed onto Alexandra's legs from the ground and hugged them for dear life. "That was so scary!"

Alexandra lowered herself to Melody's level. "It's all right. You're fine now. Just chew before you swallow next time, dummy," she said with much more affection than when she usually used the term.

The group standing around the two then spontaneously broke into applause. Melody was a bit confused. "Why is everyone clapping?" she sniffled.

"Because Alexandra saved your life, Melody," Alan told her.

"She did?" Melody asked, wiping away some of the tears from her eyes.

"Yeah, she sure did. I still can't believe it," Valerie said, sounding amazed.

"I love you!" Melody shouted with joy as she tackled Alexandra to the ground. Alexandra was then pinned to the ground by Melody as the voluptuous blonde buried her head into her breasts and cried into them. This caused Alexandra to blush madly.

Alexandra tried to move to get up, but Melody tightened her grip around her frame and pulled her back down. Alexandra then decided to remain on the ground and hold her, since that's obviously what Melody needed right now. Although, she felt rather uncomfortable doing so in front of everyone else. Her cheeks suddenly grew even redder when she looked up and saw everyone smiling down at her as Melody continued to snuggle and cry into her like she was a beloved stuffed animal.

"That was so amazing, Alexandra," Josie said. "How did you know what to do?"

"I saw it on the news. It's called the hind-lick or something," she explained a bit awkwardly as she cradled the blonde girl.

"I agree with Josie," Alan said. "Great job, Alexandra!" He then leaned down and patted her on the back. He kept his hand there for a few moments more and rubbed her a bit. After he finished, Alexandra looked up at him with a completely blank and emotionless expression.

"That's my sister!" Alexander exclaimed. "She is a Cabot after all! A regular chip off the old block!"

"I've never been so impressed by you before, Alexandra," Valerie told her. "Heck, you taught me something new today. I'm sorry about what I said in the van earlier. Thank god you were here."

"Well, you should be sorry!" Alexandra snapped back with a bit her usual attitude.

"Guess I'm just a big dumb dumb," Valerie said with a smile.

Josie then noticed the big red blush lighting up Alexandra's cheeks. "_Awww,_ look she's blushing from all the praise," Josie told everyone. "Wow, I didn't know you could be bashful, Alexandra."

"Yeah, that's the reason why all right," she said as Melody kept hugging onto her for dear life and nuzzling her head into her breasts.

"Well, I think you definitely deserve it," Josie said.

Sometime later, the excitement finally died down, and Alexandra was finally able to unlatch Melody off of her long enough to get up. She then went into the van, opened up her suit case, and removed a small red nighty. She then changed into it behind the van.

The frilly little nighty was so skimpy that it barely managed to cover her slightly plump rear. The fabric it was made out of was also nearly see-through. She had been hoping to use it to seduce Alan during the camping trip. In fact, the thought of Alan seeing her in it was the main reason she had purchased in it the first place.

Now, however, she didn't know what to think. She knew that she had never technically been in a relationship with Alan. But still, having seen him with Josie like that made her feel like she had been stabbed in the heart all the same. It had also made her feel utterly humiliated for a reason she wouldn't admit to anyone. She didn't think anyone else knew what that reason was. However, it had still made her feel more embarrassed and more pathetic than during any other point in her life.

She then turned around and was startled to see Alan standing there, giving her a sly grin. How long had he been watching her? "Ready for bed I see," he said. For some reason, his words combined with his tone of voice and expression seemed really suggestive to her.

"Well, yeah. It is time to sleep," Alexandra said nervously as her heart started to pick up pace.

"Is it?" he asked just as suggestively.

Alexandra kept getting redder and redder, and she backed up against the van apprehensively. Undeterred, Alan stepped closer and closer to her until he was only a few inches away from her.

Suddenly, however, the sexual tension was interrupted by Josie appearing from the other side of the van. Alan stepped back a couple paces.

Apparently, Josie too had just changed and was now dressed for bed as well. Covering her nubile body was a flowing white night gown that extended to just below her knees. The garment was certainly more conservative than Alexandra's much tinier nighty. However, it still exuded a very sexy "girl next door" quality that was extremely appealing none the less. Immediately, Alan's attention was drawn to the redhead like a cat to a mouse that had just scampered across the floor. "Hey, Josie."

"Hi, Alan," she said dreamily. The two just stood there, staring into each other's eyes for what seemed like minutes. It was like they had both been hypnotized. As Alexandra watched them, she became more and more irritated until it felt like her head was about to explode. She then coughed very loudly into her hand.

"Oh, hey, Alexandra. Sorry, I didn't see you there," she said.

"Obviously," she spat back. For some reason, she sounded more hurt than angry.

"Oh, that's a cute nighty," Josie said, "but aren't you a little cold?"

"Well, at least I didn't buy it at the secondhand store where you got that rag!" she snapped. She then stomped away from the two.

"I didn't mean anything bad by it. I really do like it," Josie said, sounding a bit upset.

"Well, I guess Alexandra is back to being Alexandra." Alan sounded a bit disappointed as he said that. This confused Josie. However, staring at his gorgeous face and chiseled chest, she quickly forgot about it.

Alexandra went and sat on the ground on the opposite side of the fire from the rest of the group. She was still seething with anger from what had just transpired. However, again, the anger she felt began to be overpowered by the more painful feelings of depression, hopelessness, and humiliation.

A few minutes later, Alan and Josie came and sat down by the fire not too far away from Alexandra. They started chatting. Again, it was like she didn't exist. She then caught Alan looking down and eyeing Josie's chest a few times. While her outfit was certainly not as revealing as hers, it hugged Josie's contours quite nicely and had a neckline low enough to reveal a decent amount of her cleavage. Alexandra gnashed her teeth and drove her finger nails into the palm of her hand so hard that it drew blood. "Never again," she muttered. "Never again."

She then raised her hand and wiped away a few tears that had just run down her cheek. As she did so, she smeared it with a bit of blood from her palm. Again, she couldn't stand to look at them any longer and turned to face the other direction. A mere inch away from her face were two big sparkling eyes above two cute round cheeks and below a gorgeous head of blonde hair. "My hero!" Melody squealed.

"_Gahhh!_" Alexandra screamed as she faltered backwards several feet. The eerily cute girl's sudden appearance seemingly out of thin air had frightened the life out of her.

Melody began to crawl in Alexandra's direction on all fours like a panther with an expression on her face that suggested she was about to devour her whole. "Let me thank you more, my hero!"

"Get away from me, you weirdo!" Alexandra shouted as Melody tried to crawl on top of her. She then pushed her away, got up, and ran back behind the van.

"Awww," Melody pouted.

Alexandra leaned against the van and tried to catch her breath. "_Wha-wha-what_ was she going to do to me?" she asked, winded. Catching her breath was difficult. Her breathing was so heavy and her heart was pounding so hard, it was like she had just been injected with an overdose of adrenalin. In fact, she was much more flustered than she was when Alan had made his advance on her only a little while ago.

Finally, sometime later, Alexandra calmed down a bit. She went back into the van and removed a sleeping bag and pillow. She then dragged them past the group of youngsters at the fire and continued to drag them a decent distance away from them.

Truth be told, she wasn't trying to get away from Valerie, Alexander, or even Melody. She just wanted to be out of earshot of Josie and Alan's chattering. Even now, they were carrying on and overtly flirting with each other. To Alexandra, hearing Josie's never ending schoolgirlish giggling at Alan's beyond obvious sexual innuendos was like listening to sharp nails being dragged across a chalkboard. She stopped walking once she was far enough away that the sound of the two ceased. It was a bit colder this far away from the fire, but it was worth it to Alexandra to not have to hear them anymore.

Almost robot like, she stretched out the sleeping bag, crawled into it, slipped the pillow under her head, and closed her eyes. Despite receiving unanimous praise from the group earlier, she was still quite shaken by all the day's events. Hopefully, sleep would be able to quell her anxieties, nagging thoughts, and deep sorrow.

She then heard a familiar bird like voice chirp, "Alexandra?"

"Go away," she said, not even opening her eyes.

"Alexandra?" Melody asked again.

"I said go away, Melody!" she relented.

Melody giggled incessantly. "_Ohhhh, Alexaaaandraaaaa,_" she sang.

Finally, she opened her eyes. Standing above her was the beautiful blonde decked out in cute checkered pajamas and holding her sleeping bag and pillow.

"What is it?" Alexandra groaned.

"Can I sleep with you?"

"You mean sleep by you, dumb dumb. Sleep with you means something else."

"Oh, what does it mean?" she asked curiously.

Suddenly, Alexandra's cheeks went bright red. "_Uhhh…_ Never mind. I guess you can sleep with me. _I mean sleep by me!_" she corrected herself, quite flustered.

"Yay! I get to sleep with my hero!" She then jumped into her sleeping bag and plopped onto the ground close enough to Alexandra that their sleeping bags were touching each other. She rested her head on her pillow and turned to look deep into Alexandra's eyes with her big blue orbs.

"Stop calling me a hero, all right? I'm not one."

"You are a hero. You saved me."

"Well, I just did what I thought I had to do. I mean, I'm really glad you're ok. I don't want you to be hurt. It's just I'm not a hero, ok?"

"Well, you are to me."

"I'm not I said."

Melody then reached out, slipped her hand inside Alexandra's sleeping bag, and gripped on to her shoulder. "You still don't sound like yourself. The Alexandra I know would be proud of what you did. You sound upset. You ok, Alexandra?"

"I don't know. I feel really confused right now."

"Confused about what?"

Alexandra blushed deeply. "Well… just everything I guess. Alan, Josie, _umm…_"

"Is it just about Alan and Josie?"

"Not exactly." She blushed again and bit down on her lower lip.

Melody smiled widely. Alexandra just looked so cute to her right now. She was also glad that she was able to talk to her like this now. In the past, this certainly would have not been the case. She never showed a vulnerable side to anyone, let alone Melody. Being able to talk to her like this had certainly been a break through. "So, what else is it about?"

"Well…"

Melody smirked. "Yes, Alexandra?"

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Of course you can."

"Well… Um… Uh... _Grrrrr,_" she finally growled, frustrated that she couldn't force the words out of her lips.

"_He he he,_" Melody giggled. "It's ok, Alexandra. You can tell me. Just relax. It'll be ok."

"Well… I'm just kinda curious, all right, so don't take this the wrong way."

"_He he. _I won't. Promise."

"Well, it's about you acting… you know."

Melody raised an eye brow. "Know what?"

"You know... Weird... Yeah."

"You mean like the time we had that gig in Austria, and I thought it was Australia, so I dressed up in a kangaroo costume?"

"No," Alexandra grunted, rolling her eyes. "I mean weird with me."

"Oh, you mean like that time back in high school when we were paired up in Home Ec class, and we were supposed to make bread, and somehow I ended up making blue berry pizza instead, and then you had to go to the hospital for food poisoning?"

"No, dumb dumb! I mean weird with me today!"

"_Ohhhhhh…_ You mean the kissin' and cuddlin'?"

"Yeah," Alexandra blurted out, blushing even more.

"What do you want to know about it?"

"Why did you do that stuff?"

"_He he._ Because I wanted to, silly. Do I need another reason?"

Alexandra shook her head. "No, _umm,_ never mind…" Still her curiosity got the best of her. "But uhhh…"

"Yes?"

"Well, would you do that with like Josie or Valerie?"

"_Hmmm._" Melody placed her finger on her lip as she thought for a moment. "Nope. Right now, I only want to do kissin' and cuddlin' with you, Alexandra. I don't want to do it with anyone else."

Suddenly, Alexandra's face was so red that she resembled a cooked lobster. "Alexandra, you look pretty red. You ok?" She then reached forward and placed a palm on her cheek. Her cheek literally let off steam when Melody's palm made contact. "Hmmm, you have a fever."

"Um, must be all the night air," Alexandra nervously muttered. Melody still hadn't removed her hand from Alexandra's face. Instead, she moved it down a bit and began gently stroking her cheek.

"Oh no," Melody said, sounding concerned. "Maybe I should take your temperature. I know how, but what would we use as a thermometer? Gee, I wonder. You have any ideas?"

Alexandra turned over to face away from her. The cute girl's very suggestive comments were really starting to get to her even though there was still the possibility that she was making them unwittingly. "I'll be fine. I just need to sleep it off."

Melody again took her hand and placed it on Alexandra's shoulder that was bare save for the thin strap of her nighty. She then began to gently stroke it much like she had stroked her cheek and much like she had petted Sebastian earlier that day. Just the feeling of the blonde's fingers moving over her skin sent jolts of electricity surging through Alexandra's body. "I just hope you feel better, Alexandra. You know, I worry about you sometimes… Even before today, I worried about you."

Alexandra was a bit confused. "You never seemed worried before," she said, still facing the other direction.

"I'm sorry. That's my fault. You always seemed kinda busy, so I didn't want to bug you. You seemed like you could handle it, but I could tell something was wrong. I should have told you sooner."

"It's ok, Melody. I'm not mad at you. Like I said, I'm just really confused right now. I need sleep. Maybe it will make more sense tomorrow. God, I hope so," she said, exasperated.

Melody took her fingers off of Alexandra's shoulder. "Ok," she chirped. "Well, I really do hope you feel better tomorrow. Sweet dreams, my hero."

"I told you not to call me that, all right? Just call me Alexandra."

"But why? I just want to thank you for what you did."

"Because it makes me feel like the only reason you're being nice to me is because of what I did."

"_He he._ Well, ok, Alexandra. But you shouldn't worry about that. I've felt the same way about you for a very long time."

"_Uh, whatever!_" Alexandra squawked nervously, shocked at her comment. "Let's just go to sleep now please. No more talking, ok?" she rattled off.

Melody giggled a bit. "Ok. Sweet dreams, Alexandra."

"Good night, Melody."

Despite what she had said, Alexandra did not fall asleep. Her mind was still racing. She was still trying desperately to cope with the idea that her extreme infatuation with Alan, a boy she had been madly in love with for many years now, had more than likely been a completely wasted effort. Also deeply disorienting was the timely interjection of Melody's surprising advances on her.

Shocking to Alexandra, the second issue was taking up most of her thoughts. Was this really just more of Melody's bizarre absent minded behavior, or was there really something more to it? She would be willing to believe it was just Melody acting strange. However, she did just say she had felt the same way about her for a very long time. What did she mean? Did she actually like her? Maybe even love her? Just the mere thought of that possibility filled Alexandra's stomach with a weird fluttery feeling and caused her heart beat to pick up the speed and momentum of a runaway train.

But still, she was a girl. Liking girls was something that had never even occurred to her before. That was especially the case since Alan, a near Adonis example of masculinity, had taken up most of her attention for the past several years.

Although, now, she realized she had sometimes spied on Melody's near perfect feminine form on stage, in the dressing room, in the hotel, at poolside, and elsewhere. She had always done so with a feeling of disdain and jealousy of her shapely and utterly gorgeous body. But had that really been the case? Or had it simply been a self-deceit she had created to rationalize the real reason she often looked at her like that? She wasn't so sure anymore.

In addition to that, before today, she would have never pictured herself with someone with the mental faculties of Melody. It conflicted sharply with her very refined and cultured upbringing. Her father would probably not approve of someone like that being her mate even if it was a guy. But what would he think if it was a girl? Or any girl? She didn't know the answer, and that scared her.

She then heard a peculiar noise emanating from behind her. It almost sounded like a bird cooing. Turning over and facing Melody, she could now see that it was in fact her snoring. Every few seconds, the cute blonde would emit little coos with puffs of warm breath that would blow against Alexandra's lips. She had heard her peculiar snoring before, but this was the first time Alexandra had realized just how utterly cute it was.

Even cuter was the content little smile she wore as she slumbered. She was so happy. Even though she had almost died earlier that night, she was joyously happy even now as she slept. That image alone was one of the most reassuring and soothing things she had ever seen. At that moment, Alexandra realized it would all be all right. All the reassurance she needed was right there in that smile.

After watching her for what must have been a really long time, she suddenly heard mumbling coming from Melody's lips. "_Why don mnanama…_"

"Is she talking in her sleep?" She had heard stories from Josie and Valerie about Melody sometimes doing so, but she had never heard it for herself.

"Hello, Mr. Cow. Would you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?" Melody suddenly asked.

Alexandra started snickering loudly.

"And you, Mrs. Beaver, would you like some potato salad? It's mustard," she went on.

"God, she's even a nut when she's sleeping." Alexandra said before again snickering incessantly. It was just too funny.

Suddenly, Melody sat up, causing her sleeping bag to slip down past her large chest. "Oh, it's a cute skunk!"

"Melody, are you still sleeping?" Alexandra asked, getting creeped out.

She then slumped back down. "Oh, I just love skunks. Come here, let me pet you…" She then extended her hand directly into Alexandra's sleeping bag and pressed it against one of Alexandra's breasts. For a moment, Melody fondled Alexandra's breast as steam escaped from Alexandra's red cheeks and shockwaves of pleasure shot through her body. A moment later, Alexandra jerked back away from her.

"_Awww,_ come back, my little skunky," the dreaming blonde cutely whined. Alexandra looked over at her. She looked absolutely adorable with her lips scrunched up into a frown as she searched around the grass with her hand for the imaginary skunk.

For some reason, Alexandra felt sorry for her. She gulped and then extended her hand to near Melody's hand on the grass. Melody's fingers touched Alexandra's fingers. Suddenly, Melody's sad frown turned back into that joyous, cute smile. "There you are," she said as she clasped on to Alexandra's hand.

Melody then pulled Alexandra's hand towards her, and Alexandra scooted closer to let her. Melody took Alexandra's hand, brought it to her chest, and firmly pressed it against one of her big round breasts. "_Gah!_" Alexandra yelped, certainly not expecting her to do that.

However, she did not jerk her hand away. As her heart began pounding at 100 beats per minute, she let Melody push her palm against her cushy mound. Melody then took her other hand and began moving her fingers up and down her forearm like she was petting it.

Once Alexandra stopped panting so hard, she calmed down a bit. She then realized that Melody was still dreaming and was now petting the skunk in her dream as she held it in her arms. As she relaxed, the strangely pleasant sensation of Melody gently running her fingers up and down her arm became more and more soothing.

Alexandra simply lay and watched Melody's absolutely adorable expression of complete contentment as she continued petting her imaginary skunk. Melody's extremely content smile was contagious, and soon, Alexandra was smiling as well. In fact, it was the first time she had smiled that well for nearly as long as she could remember. Still, Alexandra was surprised that Melody could make her feel this way. "What the hell is wrong with me?" she asked herself pleasantly.

"You're about to find out," a darkly sinister Scottish accented voice answered from behind her. Before Alexandra had the chance to scream, a hairy hand extended from the man's white robe to push a piece of cloth against her mouth. As her cries for help were muffled by the cloth, she breathed in fumes of chloroform. It was only a few seconds before Alexandra's body went limp. The druid then ripped the unconscious girl away from Melody.

As he tried to pick her up, he heard an angry hiss. A sharp claw then swiped and sliced the back of his hand. It was Sebastian. He had been sleeping at the feet of both girls and had gone unnoticed by both due to how well his black coat blended in with the dark ground. The man then swung hard with his now bloody hand and swatted the cat in the head, knocking him back several feet. Sebastian tried to stand back up. However, his legs buckled, and he collapsed back into the ground. He then lay motionless just like Alexandra.

With no further resistance, the druid picked up Alexandra's limp body. He then carried her past the other sleeping youths around the fire and then deep into the trees of the dark forest.

"Skunky, where did you go?" Melody asked as her hand searched the grass frantically for her skunk.

To Be Continued


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in any way.

Author's Notes: Corrected one grammatical error and one typo in Chapter 3. I also standardized how I hyphenated certain things in Chapters 2 and 3. If you read, please review. Enjoy!

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 4

Finally, consciousness drifted back to the furry black tuxedo cat named Sebastian, and he slowly opened his big yellow eyes. It took him a moment to again realize where he was. Once he had, though, Sebastian stood up on his four paws. It was a bit difficult for him to stand up straight. It was especially hard due to the sharp thumping pain that emanated from his head. However, he was on a mission now. His beloved master was in danger, and he had to do something about it. That gave him strength.

He turned his head and again saw the fair blonde beauty, Melody, slumbering as she was bathed in pale moonlight. She was still uttering gibberish from her lips, something about badgers and tuna casserole. Sebastian immediately walked over to her round cute face and started licking all over it with his little pink tongue.

It took a while, but, finally, Sebastian's licking began to rouse her. "Oh, Alexandra, how forward of you!" she squealed with delight. Without opening her eyes, she then grabbed a hold of Sebastian's head, pulled him against her mouth, and gave him a big long juicy kiss.

The kiss, however, felt strange to Melody due to Sebastian's whiskers and fur rubbing up against her lips. Finally, she ended the kiss. "Alexandra, since when did you grow a moustache?"

"Meow!" Sebastian retorted.

Finally, Melody opened her eyes and saw the dark outline of the cat in the moon light. "Oh, you're not Alexandra. You're Sebastian!"

The cat rolled his eyes. "Meow."

"Were you trying to seduce me, you naughty cat?"

Sebastian shook his head from side to side, quite embarrassed. He then pointed over to the empty sleeping bag beside her with his paw.

"Oh, Alexandra is missing."

Sebastian shook his head up and down rapidly.

"Maybe she went to go take a pee. I hope she can find toilet paper out here."

Sebastian shook his head no several times fast. He then went over to Alexandra's sleeping bag. He got into the opening of the bag and stood up on two paws. He then placed part of the bag over his head like it was a hood and more of the bag around his body like it was a robe. He then extended his furry claw from the makeshift robe and uttered a creepy sounding yowl.

"Oh, you're the drew-head!"

Sebastian shook his head up and down.

"So you're saying Alexandra went to go take a pee, and then she ran into the drew-head, and then they went back to the Starship Enterprise? Golly, I sure hope they have fun!"

Sebastian slapped one of his paws against his face in frustration. He then pulled down his makeshift hood, grabbed one of his pointy ears, and began to wiggle it back and forth. Melody quickly got the message and grabbed onto one of her own ear lobes. She could feel it vibrating, an ominous sign of some dangerous threat looming ahead. "Oh no, Alexandra is in danger!"

Melody hopped up and ran over to Josie, who was slumbering in her sleeping bag near the fire. She then reached down, gripped onto Josie's shoulders, and shook her a bit. Eventually, Josie was lulled out of sleep. "_Wha… wha,_ _Melody?_" she asked as she lifted her head up, sounding and looking very groggy.

"Alexandra went to go potty, and then she met the drew-head, and then they were beamed up into space, but now there's danger!"

"You just had another dream, Melody. Just go back to sleep," she said, laying her head back down and closing her eyes.

Melody immediately grabbed back onto Josie's shoulders, pulled her back up, and started shaking her for dear life. "Alexandra is in danger! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

"_Ahhhhhhhhhh!_" Josie's bobbing head screamed as she was violently jerked back and forth. "_Pleeeeeeeease stoooooop shaaaaaaaakiiiiing meeeeeee!_" she cried as she was swung back and forth like a yo-yo.

Finally, Melody stopped. Josie, after regaining her equilibrium, got up and helped rouse the rest of the youths out of sleep. Melody tried to explain to them what had transpired. That resulted in everyone becoming extremely confused. However, Sebastian then stepped in to explain what had happened with more of his brand of feline charades. Somehow, his explanation was much more clear and comprehendible.

"Thanks for that detailed and thorough explanation, Sebastian," Alan said to the cat.

"Meow!" he said back.

"I told you guys! I told you!" Alexander whined. "We should've gone back to the hotel! I just knew something like this would happen! I just knew it, and now my poor dear sister has been abducted by some hooded lunatic!"

"Well, there's only one thing we can do now," Valerie said. "We have to go look for her."

"Great idea!" Alexander said. "You do that, and I'll go get help back in America. I'll call you when I get off the plane." He then tried to run back towards the van, but Alan again grabbed the collar of his shirt, forcing him to run in place until he gave up trying to get away.

"Aren't you worried about your sister?" Josie asked him.

"Of course I am, but one of us has to live to pass on the Cabot name. We're a very important family!" Josie rolled her eyes.

Alan let go of his collar. "Don't worry, you're going to live, but you're also going to help us find Alexandra," Alan told him.

"I rue the day I hired you," Alexander muttered.

"So how are we going to find Alexandra way up in outer space?" Melody asked. "Is Valerie going to make us a space ship?"

"Well, I don't think they went to space, Melody," Valerie told her. "In all likelihood, they're still somewhere in the forest. However, that ray gun of yours has given me an idea." She went to the van, opened the door, and switched on the ceiling light. She then went to retrieve the gun-like device from the spot she had placed it in the back seat. However, she was surprised to find it missing.

"You can't find it?" Josie asked her.

"No. I put it right there before I went to bed. Maybe our druid friend took it back before he made off with Alexandra. Guess I was foolish to not lock the door."

"Do you need it to find her?" Alan asked.

"Nope. It did give me a great idea though. That supposed laser gun is really a sensor of some kind. I think it keys off of some kind of chemical released by the human body, maybe pheromones. I'm not quite sure. Whatever the case, we can make our own sensor. All I need to do is make a few alterations to the van's AM/FM radio. Alan, can you help me?"

"Sure thing, Val." Alan quickly went into the front seat, opened up the glove compartment, and grabbed a screw driver out of it. He then lifted up the dash panel around the radio past the retaining clips and removed it. Next, he used the screw driver to unscrew the four screws that kept the radio in place. With the radio now loose, he yanked it out and unconnected the wires attached to the back of it. He then handed it to Valerie.

"So you're going to make this radio detect body chemicals or something?" Josie, a bit confused, asked.

"No. It's a radio. So I'm just going to alter it to pick up a different kind of sound wave, a certain really high-pitched sound wave to be exact. If Alexandra is in trouble, I'm sure she's screaming at the top of her lungs. I know you're all aware of how distinct and piercing that sound is."

"Oh god, don't remind me," Josie said, cringing at the painful memories of that high pitched wail that had been scratched into her psyche.

"Alexandra's voice sounds really pretty when she's screaming at the top her lungs," Melody said, sounding nostalgic. "I sure hope I get to hear it again."

Valerie and Josie gave her disturbed looks. "Sometimes, I think you do belong up in space with Captain Kirk, Melody," Valerie told her.

"He he. Thanks!"

Everyone quickly got dressed, and Valerie went and retrieved a flashlight and her toolkit she brought with her everywhere from the back of the van. She then got to work. After about twelve minutes of tinkering with transistors, remapping circuitry, re-routing wires, altering switches, and attaching a small speaker and a couple lights, Valerie's modified device was finished. "Ok, it's ready."

"Wow, record timing, Val," Alan said, impressed.

"No big deal. I work well under pressure," she said, sounding slightly vain.

"So are we going to have to hear her screaming?" Josie asked a bit apprehensively.

"I thought of that. Thankfully, I took that into account in the design." She then turned a dial on the radio. "Instead of her voice, all you will have to hear is a beeping sound. The closer we get to her screaming, the louder the beeping will become." Suddenly, the device emitted a moderately soft beep. "And there it goes." A few seconds later, the beeping sound repeated.

"But what if Alexandra stops screaming?" Melody asked.

"Good question, Melody. The radio only needs to pick up the sound wave of Alexandra's scream once. We can learn what direction it came from, because the beeps will become louder the closer we come to where the sound wave originated."

"Can't we just go find a phone and call Scotland Yard or you know the park service or something?" Alexander whined.

"We can do that later, but I think this is the fastest way to find her right now," Valerie said. Alexander let out another cowardly moan.

Valerie started walking forward in one direction with the device in her hands. It suddenly emitted a beep that was slightly louder than the ones from before. "Looks like Alexandra is in this direction." The rest of the group began following Valerie and her beeping machine. She used her flashlight to illuminate the way through the dark forest. However, she switched it off as the bright Scottish sun appeared over the horizon.

Trailing behind the rest of the group were Melody and Sebastian. They seemed to be the most troubled out of the six. She couldn't quite put her finger on the reason why, but Melody had a strong hunch that Valerie's machine was not going to find Alexandra. This worried her greatly. She then noticed Sebastian, who had been walking along side her, had stopped in his tracks and was sniffing the ground.

"Do you smell something, Sebastian?"

"Meow!" He had indeed caught a whiff of something. He sniffed it a few more times and deduced that it was in fact a faint mixture of three distinct scents. One was unmistakably the intense odor of horse manure. The second was a musty and fowl stench that smelled almost as bad. Sebastian recognized it immediately from his confrontation with the druid. The smell had been all over him. Lastly, there was a faint hint of one of his favorite odors. Most cats were repelled by the scent of perfume. However, Alexandra's favorite Yves Laurel perfume had become one fragrance he had taken a strong liking to, mostly because he identified it with his master.

Immediately, Sebastian took off into the woods in the opposite direction that Valerie and the rest of the gang were walking. "Valerie!" Melody called out to her. Unfortunately, she did not hear her. She was too far ahead now, and the beeping of her device had become so loud that it drowned out Melody's cry.

"She's close by!" Valerie yelled with excitement. She then immediately began sprinting in that direction, and Josie, Alan, and a reluctant Alexander ran behind her. Melody seeing Sebastian getting further away from her in the other direction made the snap judgment to follow him instead.

Finally, Valerie stopped when a blue light on her machine started flashing. It was near a rather thick old pine tree. It stretched up a good sixty feet in the air and was full of long thick branches covered with pointy green pine needles.

"Why did you stop?" Alan asked her.

"This is where the sound wave originated from."

"Darn, we must have missed her," Josie said.

"Ok, she's not here. Time to give up," Alexander said, sounding winded from the sprint.

Valerie looked down at her machine. "_Hmm._ I don't think we missed her. My sound wave detector says the last scream ended less than thirty-seven seconds ago. Also, it's showing the blue light instead of the red light."

"What the heck does that mean?" Alexander asked.

"That means the source of the sound wave isn't across from us. It's above us." All four youths looked up at the tall tree.

Josie put her hands around her mouth and called out, "Alexandra, you can come down now! It's Josie, the Pussycats, Alan, and your chicken brother!"

"Hey, I resent that remark!"

"Then why don't you climb up there and bring down your sister?"

"Chickens aren't good a climbing!" He started trembling just at the thought. Josie rolled her eyes.

Josie, Alan, and Alexander all called up at her. However, there was no response.

"Well, she doesn't seem to want to come down. Someone is going to have to go up there," Valerie said. "Melody, didn't you used to like climbing trees as a girl?" There was no answer. Suddenly, everyone realized she was no longer with the group. "Where's Melody?"

"Oh my god, the Deadly Druid must have got her! He's probably after all of us!" Alexander screamed at top of his lungs. He then jumped into Alan's arms. "Save us, Alan!"

"Relax, chicken little." Alan set him on the ground.

"We're dropping like flies! We're doomed! Doomed I tell you!" he cried from the ground. He then carried on with hysterical sobbing as he rocked back and forth in a fetal position.

"Melody probably just wandered off on her own again," Josie surmised completely calmly.

"I agree," Alan said, "but still, someone is going to have to go up there before we can go look for her. I'll do it."

"You're so brave, Alan!" Josie squealed. He then flashed her a bright smile with his pearly white teeth. Josie emitted an audible swoon from just seeing that perfect smile on his utterly gorgeous flawless face.

"Watch out for tree druids," Valerie joked.

"No problem, I can handle then." He then grabbed onto a large branch and hoisted himself up on it. He proceeded to grab on to the next branch above his head and do the same.

"According to the machine, you should only have to go up about forty-seven feet," Valerie shouted.

Alan kept climbing up the pine's strong branches until he guessed he was a little less than fifty feet in the air. "All right, I think I'm there," he yelled down.

"Do you see Alexandra?" Josie shouted.

He looked around the branches on his level and scanned around the branches higher in the air. It was a little dark due to the shade of the pine needles, but enough light filtered though that he could see clearly. "Alexandra's not here!"

"That can't be right," Valerie said, perplexed. "Look around a bit more!"

"Well, all right, but I don't see her!" He then spotted a rather large hole in the tree trunk. "Wait, I see something!" It was a bit of a stretch, but perhaps a person could squeeze inside that hole if they tried.

He crossed over to another branch beside him that was closer to the hole. He then sat down on it and scooted over on the branch until he was right next to the opening. He then bent over and stuck his head inside. "Alexandra?"

Immediately, Alan felt excruciating pain as he was stabbed in the face with several extremely sharp objects. He let out a ghastly scream as the hook like blades ripped at his face and faltered back down the branch. Alan continued screaming as the creature from inside the hole, a rather large long-eared owl, kept digging into his face with its razor sharp talons. Finally, Alan was able to bat the owl off of his head with a hard swipe of his arm. It then screeched and flew away with Alan's blood still dripping from its claws.

Josie and Valerie watched the bird soar away into the distance as it continued to screech. "Well, it does sound a lot like Alexandra," Josie remarked. Valerie was too embarrassed to say anything.

"I can't see! I can't see!" Alan shouted from the branch. Alan was lucky enough that the owl's talons had come a few fractions of an inch away from clawing out his eyeballs. However, the wounds above his eyes were now gushing a continuous stream of blood downwards that made the entire world around him take on a crimson appearance. As he struggled to regain his composure, he lost his balance on the branch and fell backwards. He then slammed through a series of smaller branches, breaking them all, until he hit the ground with a loud thud.

Josie and Valerie screamed after seeing the former blond Adonis's current ghastly appearance. However, their screams were drowned out by the screams of Alexander that were even higher pitched than the owl's. "The tree druid got him! _Take the women, but spare me! Ahhhhhhhhh!_" He continued screaming as he ran off frantically deep into the woods much like a chicken with its head cut off.

Alexandra opened her eyes. She had a ringing headache and felt extremely groggy. Beyond that, her back was very stiff. It felt like she was lying on top of a very hard rocky surface. However, when she looked ahead of her, instead of seeing the sky, she saw a line of trees edging up the sharp incline of a hill. She then realized she was in fact in an upright position.

When she attempted to move forward, she found that her legs could barely move and her arms could not budge even a centimeter. She turned her head to the side and saw that her left wrist was bound tightly in a knot of black rope. The rope at the end of that knot was stretched around a very large block of weather beaten stone that stood behind her. Looking to her right, she could see the other end of the same rope stretched to a second knot around her right wrist. She then tipped her head downwards and could see that her bare ankles were bound together as well, completing her crucifix like bondage to this rather large rock.

For a few moments, Alexandra was confused as to what had actually happened. She listened to the sounds of the forest for a moment. They were peaceful and serene. The loudest sound she could hear was the pretty chirping a bird in some far away tree. She then felt a warm summer breeze blow against her bound body. It tingled against most of her skin due to that fact that her curvy female form was still only covered by the tiny piece of lace and fabric that was her nighty.

She then suddenly recalled the disturbing image of a man in a white hood shoving a piece of cloth in her face in the pale moonlight, and panic quickly set in. "_Heeeeeeeeeelp! _ Somebody get me down from here!" she called out into the barren woods.

To her surprise, she heard a reply. "Ah, you're awake… perfect," a very Scottish, mature voice said from behind her. The person who said those words then stepped in front of her. It was the druid still in his long flowing white robe and hood that hung over his face.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, but you let me down from here right now, you hooded weirdo!"

"No," he said simply.

"_Ahhhhhhhhh!" _Alexandra screeched at the top of her lungs. "Let me down right now, you freak! Let me down! Let me down! Let me down! Someone arrest this nutcase! Take him into custody! Throw away the key! You can't treat me like this! Do you know who I am? I'm Alexandra Cabot! You won't get away with this!"

"Bellow all you want. No one can hear you here."

"Help! Help! Help! Help!" she shouted. "Some lunatic with no fashion sense has me tied up to a rock! Someone come save me from this idiot!"

The druid then extended his hairy hand from his robe. It was now wrapped in a white bandage thanks to Sebastian slashing the back of it with his claw. He then reached back and slapped Alexandra hard against her face, producing a very loud smack. "Silence, impudent wench!"

Despite the pain emanating from the big read palm print now against her cheek, Alexandra was undeterred. "Silence this, asshole!" She then sucked a good deal of air into the back of her throat and spat out all of the saliva and mucus she could muster in one big glob of spit.

The glob went directly into the opening in the druid's hood and splattered against his face on the inside. He then reached with his hand and pushed the hood back. Revealed was the face of an ugly bearded man of about 50 years of age with beady, dark eyes and pale, wrinkled skin. The expression on his face was one of absolute resentment, resentment for the situation at hand as well resentment of society and the world at large. However, a creepy smile suddenly crept across his hairy face. He knew that soon his fortune would change, and it was all thanks to this young dark haired woman.

He continued his creepy smile as he let the saliva and mucus drip down his face. This look infuriated Alexandra even more. "Fuck you!"

Finally, he wiped her spit from his face. "If you had done that, you wouldn't be in this situation."

"Right! Like I would give the time of day to an old hairy ape that lives in the woods and dresses up in his mommy's bath robe! Could you be anymore delusional?"

"I don't think you quite comprehend your current situation."

"I understand that you need to check yourself back into the loony bin, psycho! Why don't you just let me down from this rock, and then I can call the men in the white coats to come take you away. Everyone will be happy."

"You don't get it. That 'rock' as you put it is actually named the Déu Stone."

"Wow, you named a rock. God, what a loser you are!"

A vein on the druid's forehead began pounding from sheer annoyance, but he continued, "Coincidently, déu is a Gaulish word that means god. So this is the God Stone."

"You worship a rock? And I thought Christianity was stupid!" She then started laughing at him. The druid reached back and slapped her again, this time twice as hard. The slap was so severe that it left a dark purple bruise on her face. "Just shut up and listen to me!"

"_Hmph!_" She didn't say anything else, but continued her disobedience as a deeply bitter scowl.

"If you could see this very stone that is tied behind you, you may think it looks familiar. Indeed, it was once one of the sacred stones that stood at Stonehenge. In fact, what many fools like you fail to realize is that Stonehenge is missing the most important stone that once stood at the center of that religious monument. It was and still is the key to the monument's magical powers."

Alexandra rolled her eyes harshly at the pure ridiculousness of this claim.

The druid frowned but went on, "Doubt all you will. The Gauls and their high priests, the druids, I of which am the last true surviving druid, have been persecuted and chastised for centuries. However, what I speak is the truth. The god referred to in the name the God Stone is Cernunnos. Cernunnos is the horned god of life and death. As such, this rock has amazing powers. It can bring the dead back to life. It can also grant eternal youth. It is in fact believed that the stones of Stonehenge were carved from the horns of Cernunnos."

"They're just rocks," Alexandra muttered.

"What was that?" The druid barked again, taking his hand back out of his robe.

"Nothing! Go on with your stupid story already!"

"A little over nineteen-hundred years ago, the land that would come to be known by the conquerors as Brittan was invaded by a people as nearly as arrogant and closed minded as you, the Romans. My people were persecuted. They were murdered, tortured, raped, and pillaged. Even worse than that, they forced to adopt the complete inanity that is Roman culture. The druids knew that they had to protect their superior culture and what was rightfully theirs. They took the Déu Stone and dragged it northward to Scotland where they hid it deep in the forest in this very spot. Since that day, my ancestors have guarded the Déu Stone. Thankfully, the residents of this area are very superstitious. All it took to keep away interlopers was the rumor of a ghost, one that my ancestors have worked very hard to maintain for generation after generation."

"Thanks for the history lesson, grandpa, but that still doesn't explain why you had to tie me up to this stupid rock! When I get down from here, you're going to regret it!" she screamed at the very top of her lungs.

"I'd slap you again, but what is coming is going to be far worse."

"_Wha.. what_ do you mean?" Alexandra asked, now sounding slightly nervous.

"You don't know much about the druids do you?"

"They were a bunch of nerds that dressed in hideous robes and danced around some stupid stones. Can I go now?"

"Perhaps if you paid closer attention in history class…"

"We didn't learn about the druids in history, you moron! You're not that important!"

"_Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!_ Yes we are! We're just as important as the most important Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians!"

"You're a bunch of nerds!"

"Well, if you weren't an uneducated swine, you would know that one of the things the druids are famous for is human sacrifice."

"Human sacrifice?" Alexandra asked before letting out an audible gulp.

"Yes, and human sacrifice is required for this particular ceremony that will grant me eternal youth. However, not simply any human sacrifice will do. Only virgin blood can appease Cernunnos."

Suddenly Alexandra looked panicky and extremely embarrassed. "Well, you're going to have to find another victim, because I certainly am no virgin."

"You are."

"Please, you're insane. A girl as utterly gorgeous and tempting as me, a virgin? Ha! What a laugh! Every day I have to fight off armies of total hunks most girls would die for! I can't keep them away from me! I'm not a kid anymore! I'm twenty-one years old, you moron!"

He then extracted the "laser gun" from a pocket inside his robe and held it out in front of her. He flipped the switch on the device, and the stone attached to it again emitted a pulsating neon green glow. Strangely, Alexandra felt a weird vibrating sensation coming from the slab of rock behind her. She turned her head and could see it was now glowing with the same neon green light as well.

The druid then squeezed the trigger. The gun buzzed and the arrow on its gauge ran to the V.

"The small fragment of stone on this gun is certainly pleased to be reunited with its source, the Déu Stone. It's also quite pleased to be near you as well. It can't wait to feed off of the spiritual energy of your virgin blood."

"_Wha-what_ are you talking about?"

"I may not look it to your deeply biased eyes, but I graduated at the top of my class in engineering from Oxford. I used what I learned combined with my extensive knowledge of ancient Gaulish magic to develop this invention, the Virginometer 5000. It harnesses the power of the Déu Stone to detect the innate magical power that only exists in virgin blood."

"So that's what V meant," Alexandra growled. "Even Sebastian isn't a virgin," she mumbled, almost sounding hurt.

"I couldn't get a good reading from your group from far way. So I simply gave it to you as a gift, and you were foolish enough to use it on each other at point black range while I watched from hiding. You were also foolish enough to use that phony map I gave you to walk right into my trap."

"So let me get this straight. You had to go college to learn how to make some geeky invention just so you could find a virgin? Even worse, since you're the last survivor, that means you and your dorky ancestors have never actually found one even though you've looked for thousands of years. That's just pathetic. How did your ancestors even reproduce if they were that bad at picking up girls?"

"Shut up! It's not as easy as it looks!"

"Maybe you should just sacrifice yourself! You're obviously the real virgin here!" she said before laughing at him. Her laughs, however, sounded a bit forced.

The druid switched off the gun. Both the stone behind Alexandra and the piece attached to the Virginometer 5000 immediately ceased glowing. He then walked behind the Déu Stone to where Alexandra couldn't see him.

"Hey, where are you going?" she barked at him. When he didn't respond, she opened her mouth to yell at him a second time but closed her lips when she suddenly felt the blade of a long curved sword against her throat. It was only a fraction of an inch away from slicing it open.

"Lucky for you, I can't spill your blood for about fifteen more minutes. Today is the summer solstice, and I have to wait until the sun is in the right position in the sky to perform the sacrifice. Rest assured though, I will enjoy carving you up like a goose. Now, excuse me, I must return to my quarters. Before I kill you, I need to perform some sacred incantations that require great concentration, and I don't want to be distracted by anymore of your insufferable blathering!"

Alexandra didn't say anything, and soon she was left alone again. She felt so bitterly alone, and it became even worse when it dawned on her that this was how she was going to die. Tears started flowing out of her eyes at that simple realization.

She couldn't do much now but think back on her life. She realized how much she had wasted it. She had spent much of it trying to impress everyone else in her life. However, no matter how much she forcefully tried to assert herself and convince them of how great she was, it didn't seem to make much difference. She didn't receive much love back in return.

She spent some time thinking about the people in her life. She thought about her very wealthy but rather cold parents. They had certainly supplied her with everything she wanted except when it came to actual affection. She thought about her less cold, but certainly not very dependable, brother. He had been a slightly better confidant. However, he had betrayed her in numerous instances including not letting her become part of Josie and the Pussycats even when promised.

She thought about her pet, Sebastian. His friendship had certainly been proven by his long-term loyalty to her. That loyalty sometimes wavered, but those instances were few and far between. Her supposed human friends in high school had certainly not been as loyal. Their relationships with her didn't seem to extend beyond taking advantage of her wealth and had not lasted beyond high school. She thought about Alan, her unrequited love that barely even acknowledged her existence. She also thought of Josie and Valerie, who had seemed to despise her but still put up with her presence enough to allow her to follow them around on tour for close to four years.

Finally, she thought about Melody. She then realized that she was perhaps the only human being who was consistently kind and friendly to her. Beyond that, her kindness seemed genuine. A person as innately innocent as Melody certainly didn't have any underlying motivations for being nice to her. Yet, when she thought back, she could only remember times when she had been down right mean to her. She had taken every opportunity she could to put her down to her face. Despite this fact, she just smiled and remained friendly to her. Her attempts to push her away had failed miserably.

Now, however, Alexandra felt extremely guilty and remorseful for how she had acted. Despite her confusion and initial denial, the mere suggestion that Melody had felt more for her than friendship had made her feel very happy. It was a feeling of happiness she couldn't remember the last time she had experienced. That was now over though, and shortly, so would be her existence.

"I'm sorry, Melody," she wept.

"Sorry for what, Alexandra?" a familiar voice asked, sounding confused.

Alexandra lifted her head up and opened her eyes. She saw the beautiful blonde girl again giving her that pleasant warm smile. "Melody, what are you doing here?" she asked, shocked.

"I'm here to rescue you!"

Alexandra's eyes widened in panic. "_Alan! Josie! Valerie! Anyone else! Save me! Save me! Don't leave my life in the hands of this idiot!_ _Ahhhhhhhh!_" Despite her remorse about how she had treated her, she wasn't foolish enough to trust Melody with her life.

"He he he! They're not here. It's just me. It looks like you're playing cowboys and Indians with Mr. Drew-Head. _Pheewww,_ I was worried that you were in danger."

"Melody, help me! Help me, please!"

"Oh, you want me to play too. Yay! How fun! I just love cowboys and Indians! You must be a kidnapped cowgirl."

"Help get me down!" Alexandra cried. "For the love of god!"

"Ok, we must be the good guys then!" Melody tried to untie the knot of rope around Alexandra's right wrist. However, it had been expertly tied and she was having trouble loosening it. "Golly, this knot sure is tight!"

"Hurry up, ok?" Alexandra pleaded.

Melody looked back at her and noticed a tear slowly sliding down her cheek. "_Awww,_ why are you crying, Alexandra?" Melody then put her thumb on her cheek and wiped away the tear for her. She then noticed the big dark spot on her cheek as well. "Is that a bruise? Was the drew-head playing rough with you?"

"Yes! Untie the ropes or cut them down! Do something, please!" she cried frantically. She became even more panicked when she saw a white shape emerging from the forest.

"Meddler!" the druid shouted when he saw Melody. He was holding his sword in front of him and was absolutely enraged that someone dared to interfere with his plans.

"Oh hi, Mr. Drew-Head! I see you and Alexandra have been playing! I'd like to play too, but you've been playing too rough with Alexandra. You made her cry and you gave her a bruise. Alexandra is my friend, so you play nice with her, you hear!" she shouted at him before frowning. Someone being mean to Alexandra was certainly one of the few things that could make her angry.

"_Wha.. what_ did you call me?" the druid asked as he shook with rage.

"I called you Mr. Drew-Head, Mr. Drew-Head. That is your name, right?"

"It's pronounced druid. Druid, you idiot! Don't you know anything about the great druids?"

"Ok, drew-head, got it!" She then put her finger on her chin. "Well, I know drew-heads like to dress in scary ghost costumes, play with ray guns, and now I know they like to play cowboys and Indians too. Although, I think you're doing it wrong. Everyone knows Indians don't use swords, silly. They use bows and arrows!"

"Stop making fun of me!" he shouted at her.

"But that's a very realistic fake sword you have there!"

"Melody, that's a real sword!" Alexandra warned her. She was getting more and more concerned, not only for her safety, but for Melody's now as well.

"Gee, you think so?" She squinted and looked at the long curved silver blade. The steel was etched with letters that were very similar to those of the English alphabet but were arranged in a way that Melody didn't recognize as words. "It does look very real, but why would anyone use a real play sword? _He he,_ that's just silly!"

"This isn't a play sword, you fool! This is the Nemach Calghíon! It's a sword that was passed down from generation to generation by my ancestors! It is a sacred sword used only for certain ceremonies that require human sacrifice by blade! It has seen more blood and gore than you can imagine!"

"Golly, you sure have a great imagination, Mr. Drew-Head!"

"_Stop calling me that!_"

"Stop calling you what, Mr. Drew-Head?"

"_I'll kill you!_" He then raised the sword high over his head and brought it down directly at the blonde's smiling face. However, she quickly ducked to the ground and rolled out of the way. The blade missed Melody and swiped down on the Déu Stone a few inches away from Alexandra's wrist. It sliced the rope in half, and Alexandra fell to the ground as a result.

"Damn you!" he shouted as he kept slashing his sword down at the giggling blonde. Each time he brought his sword down, however, she simply rolled out of the way. "_Weeee, this is fun!_"

A few feet away, Alexandra tried to stand up, but fell flat on her face. Despite the fact that her arms were now free, her ankles were still bound together. She tried to unfasten the knot, but it was no use. It was simply tied too tight.

"Stay still, you swine!" the druid shouted at Melody, getting frustrated.

Melody, however, was too quick for him. Soon she had gotten up and was running laps around the Déu Stone with the druid in close pursuit with his sword. "Catch me if you can!" she sang. He kept slashing down with his blade, but each time, it was still an inch or so away from slicing into her back.

As they made a fourth lap, Alexandra, still on the ground, raised her bound ankles and tripped the druid as he came back around. As he fell, he dropped his sword and the Virginometer 5000 fell out of a pocket inside his robe to the grass.

Melody sighted the device and immediately scooped it up from the ground. She then flipped it on, aimed it at the druid, and squeezed the trigger several times in a row. "Bang! Bang! Bang! Take that!" The device buzzed, and the stone attached to it glowed neon green as the arrow on its gauge ran to the V reading. The Déu Stone immediately began glowing with the same bright green color. "Oh, pretty!" Melody remarked.

As Melody was distracted by the large glowing stone, Alexandra crawled on the ground frantically for the sword. Unfortunately for her, the sword was ripped right from under her grasp by the druid's hairy hand. He then stood up and raised the sword over her. "You're still going to be my virgin sacrifice!"

Alexandra closed her eyes and waited for death. However, instead of feeling the blade, she heard a familiar feral cry and the druid scream. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Sebastian on the druid's head, clawing viciously into the opening of his hood and drawing blood that was now dripping down his white robe. The cat had in fact been hiding on the high branch of a near by tree, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Finally, the druid managed to rip Sebastian off of his face by grabbing a hold of the skin of his back. He then flung him hard against the Déu Stone. The cat bounced off of the rock and landed next to Alexandra.

The druid then removed his hood. His hairy face was now drenched in a thick coat of blood thanks to the long gashes that Sebastian had dug in with is claws. He wiped some blood off of his face, staggered forward a bit, and placed his hand on the Déu Stone for balance. As soon as his blood made contact with the stone, it began vibrating with great force, and its neon green color changed to a glow of blood red crimson. He stepped back away from the pillar of rock and seemed terrified at what he saw.

"_Ooooh,_ it changed from green to red. Reminds me of Christmas," Melody said, sounding sentimental. She then saw the druid's appearance. "Looks like you need a band-aid, Mr. Drew-Head."

"_It's druid! Druid! Druid! Druid! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!_" he screamed as he rushed at her with his sword. Just before he would have skewered her, however, she darted out of the way. He then literally tackled the Déu Stone so hard that it began to tip over.

Sebastian opened his eyes again on the other side and saw the block of stone coming. He then quickly scratched at Alexandra's side to tell her to move. She got the message and rolled out of the way just in time.

Sebastian, however, was not so lucky. He had been so concerned with Alexandra's safety that he didn't even bother to get out of harm's way himself. The large red-glowing stone slammed on top of the lower half of his body, flattening it.

"Sebastian!" Alexandra cried. Again, tears began rolling down her cheeks as she held the head of her cat. He let out one painful cry, closed his eyes, and died.

Suddenly, however, Sebastian began glowing with the same red light as the Déu Stone. He again opened his yellow eyes, and Alexandra watched in awe as he seemed to transform. His coat, which had become a bit grayer in spots in recent years, became much more consistently dark. His face also lost the somewhat haggard appearance it had developed over time and reverted to a younger shape that Alexandra remembered from shortly after he was a kitten.

Sebastian then stabbed his claws into the ground and pulled himself out from under the rock. Alexandra watched as his lower half that was as flat as a pancake inflated back to its prior healthy shape. "Meow!"

Alexandra immediately grabbed him and started kissing him all over his furry face. "Oh, Sebastian, you stupid cat, you're alive!" she cried. As she continued to kiss him, the glow coming from both the cat and the Déu Stone grew dimmer until it disappeared all together.

Melody stood over the two. "Is everything ok, Alexandra, or should I give you two some privacy?"

Alexandra pulled her lips away from her cat. "No, Melody. I can't walk, and we need to get out of here! Sebastian, help me." Sebastian walked to Alexandra's bare ankles that were bound together by black rope. He raked his very sharp claws across the rope several times fast. However, the rope was so hard and so taught that his claws had no effect. Sebastian shook his head. "Mrow."

"He he. Don't worry, Sebastian, I know what to do," Melody told him. She then leaned down, placed one hand under Alexandra's bottom and another hand under her back, scooped her up off of the ground, and held her in her arms.

Alexandra was more than a bit surprised and blushed madly. "_Me-Me-Melody, you're so strong_," she stammered.

"_He he he._ I'm a drummer. Of course my arms are strong, silly!"

Alexandra blushed even more. She felt very safe like this. She could also feel a wonderful fluttery feeling in her stomach that quickly reverberated through out her entire body. The sensation was so soothing and so pleasant that she completely forgot about the dangerous situation she was in. She unconsciously wrapped her arms around Melody's shoulders, closed her eyes, and snuggled into her chest and neck.

On top of the collapsed Déu Stone, the Deadly Druid came to. When he looked down at the large stone beneath him, he was shocked to see it again resembled an ordinary slab of gray rock. He then took the sword he still gripped in his right hand and held the back of the blade in front of his face.

He was utterly infuriated to see the reflection of his old, wrinkled, ugly face smeared with blood. He was expecting to see a much younger version of himself. "I can't perform this ceremony for another twenty years! You meddlers ruined it! Ruined it! I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"

Hearing his voice, Alexandra was snapped out of the trance she had been lulled into in Melody's arms. "Melody, you have to run now!" she warned her.

"He he! Ok!" She immediately started sprinting with the blushing raven haired girl still cradled in her arms.

The druid jumped off the Déu Stone and started a pursuit with his sword in hand. Sebastian hissed when he saw him coming and again leapt at him with his claws drawn. However, the druid was prepared this time and slashed at him hard with his sword. The blade hit Sebastian's back, cutting deep into his flesh and bone. The druid then left the cat to die and continued to charge ahead for the two women, fueled only by his thirst for their blood.

Despite the fact it should have been fatal, the deep bloody wound on Sebastian's back quickly healed as if through magic. A few seconds later, he was once again in perfect health. He stood back up and started racing after the white shape he saw far ahead of him, hissing with anger.

Alexandra looked behind Melody and saw the druid closing in on them and slashing up and down with sword, mad with bloodlust. "Run faster! Faster! He's coming!"

"Ok! _Weeeeeeeee! This is fun!_" she yelled happily as she sped up. The druid sped up his pursuit as well. The two women and one robed man weaved in between trees through the thick forest for some time. They then entered a clearing and began racing up a steep hill.

Alexandra was worried that Melody would soon loose steam due to the hill's sharp incline. However, the blonde's energy seemed almost limitless. So was the energy of the druid. Alexandra nervously watched him get closer and closer from behind them as she grabbed tight onto Melody's shoulders. He was determined to run them both through his sword, no matter the cost. He was now only a couple of feet away from doing just that.

The intensity of the chase continued until they reached the peak of the tall hill. "Oh look, a cute bunny!" Melody yelped. She then suddenly stopped and stepped a few feet to the left to view the brown mountain hare that was about twenty feet away and scratching the side of his head with his big furry foot.

The sudden change in position had caught the druid completely off guard. He ran right past the two women and then tried to change direction. Unfortunately for him, he did not realize he had just crossed the peak of the steep hill. As he tried to regain his footing, he tripped on his robe and dove forward down the sharp drop on the other side

As he rolled down the hill, his curved sword was inadvertently shoved up his robe and into the space between his legs, impaling him like a shish kabob. He continued to roll down the steep hill with the sword still lodged inside him, leaving a trail of blood behind. When his body finally came to a stop, he was already dead.

Alexandra had seen it happen, having paid attention to him instead of Melody's bunny. "Melody, you killed him!" she shouted, shocked.

Melody turned around and also looked down at the Deadly Druid, whose robe was now redder than white and was accented by the curved blade poking out through his chest. Melody immediately began sobbing. "I didn't mean to hurt him! Poor Mr. Drew-Head! His mommy should have told him not to run with sharp objects!" She continued crying.

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, Melody! He was going to kill me! You saved my life!"

"Kill you? What, for real? You mean you weren't playing?" Alexandra shook her head no. Melody looked into her eyes in her arms and saw that she was telling the truth. She immediately stopped crying. "Well, good then. Stupid drew-head!" she yelled down at his corpse.

Alexandra snickered at her sudden change of heart. She then became a bit more serious and was soon overcome with emotion. "I promise I'll never call you a dumb dumb, a dummy, a ding a ling, a ding dong, or anything else again!" she cried, tearing up again.

"_Awwww,_ but I really like those names," Melody said.

"What?" Alexandra sniffled, confused.

"Aren't those your pet names for me?"

"No, they're just names. I was being mean to you!"

Melody snickered. "Oh. Well, I like them. I've been told I have a good imagination."

Alexandra was now even more confused, but she still felt extremely remorseful. "All right, but anything you want from me, anything at all. Just ask. Money, a house, a car, I don't care what it is. You saved my life. I owe you!" she cried.

Melody shook her head. "But you saved my life last night, Alexandra. Wouldn't that make us even?"

"I still don't care. I want to pay you back!"

"It's all right. I don't want anything. The one thing I want I have right now."

"What's that?" Alexandra asked.

Melody simply giggled and smiled warmly down at her. "Let me carry you back to camp. The others are probably worried."

"All right," Alexandra agreed, although she was very curious about what she had meant. She then closed her eyes and snuggled back into Melody comfortably. Melody giggled again and continued to smile down at her for a moment. Sebastian then walked up to Melody's leg and rubbed against it, purring loudly. "Don't be jealous, Sebastian. I'll hold you later too," she said before giggling again. She then began carrying Alexandra back down the hill.

Sometime later, the two women returned to the Pussycats' camp site. Huddled together were Josie, Valerie, Alexander, and Alan, who now had bandages wrapped around a good percentage of his face. They were discussing what they should do now since their attempts to find Alexandra and Melody had failed miserably.

"I can't believe my sound wave detector isn't accurate enough," Valerie said as she continued examining the wiring of her machine in her hands to make sure she hadn't made a mistake. "I guess I could try to brainstorm another invention."

"That old park ranger certainly knew a lot about the druid," Alan remarked. "Maybe we should try to get a hold of him so he can help us find them."

"No way am I going back into those woods!" Alexander shouted as he trembled. "I say we cut our losses and run. We can call the police when we're a million miles away. If we stay here, we may be the next victims!"

"That's why I say we should call the police now," Josie said.

"And I say we should all go out for ice cream!" Melody added.

"This is no time for ice cream, Melody," Josie answered her absentmindedly. "Melody!" she shouted as she and the rest of the group turned around to see Melody standing there and holding Alexandra in her arms.

"Melody, Alexandra, you're all right!" Josie shouted, relieved.

"Oh, thank god! I thought I was going to be an only child," Alexander said.

"I'm glad too," Valerie said, also relieved. "Thank goodness, you're all ok! But I'm curious. How did you find her?"

"Sebastian helped me," Melody explained. Sebastian then walked up to the group and meowed.

"Way to go Sebastian! You're one cool cat!" Josie praised him.

"Mrow!"

"Well, I'm just glad to see all you cats are ok," Alan said, smiling.

"Thanks! Are you the Mummy?" Melody asked him.

"No, it's me, Alan."

"Oh, hi, Alan! That's a good look for you!" Melody said. "I didn't know Egyptian was in this season."

Valerie then eyed the blushing girl in Melody's arms. "Say, Melody, why are you carrying Alexandra like that?"

Alexandra blushed even more and gave an embarrassed look. "What, are you blind? My ankles are tied together, you genius!" she shouted at her.

Josie eyed the knot of rope around Alexandra's ankles. "Oh, that's an easy one!" She then walked up and fiddled with the knot for a couple seconds. The rope then slipped off of Alexandra's petite ankles and fell to the ground. She then quickly undid the knots of rope that remained around her wrists as well.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Valerie asked her, surprised.

"Girl scouts," Josie answered nonchalantly.

"Right, girl scouts," Valerie said, sounding very suspicious. "Who was your troop leader? Bettie Page? Do you know anything about this, Alan?"

"Just shut up, all right!" Josie snapped at her.

The group then waited for Melody to put Alexandra on the ground. However, instead, she just stood there and kept cradling the blushing woman in her arms, and Alexandra continued to wrap her arms tightly around her shoulders.

"I think you can put her down now, Melody," Valerie told her.

"_Awwww, _but I don't wanna!"

"Come on Melody," Valerie continued. "Put her down."

"But she's so light! It's like carrying around a big cute baby! I love it!" Alexandra was now so red that her cheeks resembled ripened tomatoes.

"She's not a baby. She can walk for herself, Melody."

Melody frowned. "_Fine…_" she pouted. She then gently set the still blushing Alexandra down on her feet. However, Alexandra found that her knees were very weak. They started buckling and she fell forward.

"Oh my gosh, she's hurt!" Josie yelled. Melody motioned to catch her, but Alan ran in for the save in front of Melody and caught her instead.

"Alexandra, are you ok?" he asked her.

Alexandra looked up from his huge muscular arms, and immediately, a deeply bitter scowl formed on her face. "Get your dirty paws off me, you bastard!" She then slapped him hard across one of the bandaged gashes on his face.

"_Ow! Ow! Ow!_" he cried. "All right, jeez!" He set her down on the grass.

Josie, Valerie, and Alexander's jaws dropped to the ground. The idea of Alexandra ever reacting towards Alan in such a way was simply too unbelievable. They were all left completely speechless. Melody, however, was not. She walked over to where she was on the ground. "Can I put my dirty paws on you, Alexandra?"

"Yes, you may, Melody," she answered her very politely. She leaned down and offered her hand to Alexandra. Alexandra gripped her hand and Melody squeezed it back. That alone made her blush again. Melody then helped her stand up. She placed her head under Alexandra's shoulder to help prop her up and wrapped her arm tightly around her back to give her support.

"Alexandra, are your legs hurt?" Josie asked her. "Should we take you to a hospital?"

Alexandra turned her head to look at Melody, who was only a couple inches away from her. Melody made eye contact with her, and Alexandra stared back contently. "No, I think I'm going to be just fine." Alexandra smiled at her. Melody giggled, smiled back too, and squeezed her a bit with her arm.

"Ok, I'm glad everyone is all right, but we gotta go!" Alexander shouted, again sounding very panicky. "The Deadly Druid could be lurking anywhere, waiting to strike!"

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Melody explained.

"And why is that, Melody?" Valerie asked her.

"I killed him," Melody answered before again giving the same impish smile she always did.

Josie gasped. "Oh my god!" She then held her palm over her mouth in shock. Valerie, Alexander, and Alan all seemed completely flabbergasted as well.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I did, cause he was going to hurt Alexandra, and I don't want anyone hurting Alexandra," she explained.

"How, did you do it?" Valerie asked.

"Well, I…"

"Wait, never mind! I don't want to know!" Valerie said, quickly changing her mind. She thought, perhaps, it would be better if she didn't know how Melody had killed him. That way she could save herself from the deep mental scarring and terrifying nightmares that would certainly result from such knowledge. "I'm sure you did it in self defense, so it was probably justified. Just remind me never to get on your bad side, Melody," Valerie told her nervously.

"Ok. Never get on my bad side, Valerie," she said before giving her a big creepy smile. This caused a cold chill to run down Valerie's spine.

"Valerie, I'm scared," Josie whispered to her.

"Me too, Josie… Me too."

After Melody's revelation, everyone decided it was best to pack up camp and get out of town as soon as possible. Melody helped Alexandra walk back to the van, opened the door for her, and sat her down. Melody then turned to leave, but Alexandra grabbed her arm. "Where you going?"

Melody giggled. "I'll be right back. I just need to throw something away. You can calm down now, Alexandra. You're safe. See?" she said, moving her hair out of the way of her ear to show Alexandra that it wasn't wiggling.

"Well, all right. Just hurry back. I want to sit next to you," she explained a bit shyly.

"_He he he!_ Sure thing!"

Melody walked towards the plastic garbage can that sat at their campsite. However, right before she got to it, Valerie came up to her. "Say, Melody, when you ummm… confronted the druid, did you happen to see that ray gun like device?"

"_Hmmm,_ nope, can't say I did, Valerie."

"Dang… I was really hoping to find out what that thing was designed to detect."

"Well, I guess we'll never know. It'll remain a mystery forever!"

"Guess so. That's just too bad," she said, sounding extremely disappointed. She then went to help Alan finish packing the van.

Melody looked around to see if anyone else was paying attention to her. They were not. She then reached into her shorts pocket, took out the Virginometer 5000, and dropped it into the garbage can.

To Be Continued


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in any way.

Author's Notes: Recently, I reviewed Chapters 1 through 3 and made some corrections. I also added a couple sentences to Alexandra's introductory description in Chapter 1. This fanfiction only uses the original Josie and the Pussycats cartoon as canon. If you read, please review!

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 5

After the conclusion of the adventure in Abernethy Forest, things seemed to fall back into a state of normalcy for the band. They arrived at their next tour stop in Inverness, Scotland without further incident.

Once in Inverness, Alexander arranged for Alan and Alexandra to see a doctor. After a few very painful stitches, Alan was told his face would eventually heal but plastic surgery would be required to remove the scarring completely. Josie immediately offered to pay for the eventual surgery no matter how expensive it was. Alan didn't try to dissuade her.

Alexandra, despite the group's previous concerns, was told she was in perfect health despite requiring immediate rest from exhaustion. A few hours later in the girls' hotel suite, Alexandra tried to get ready to watch the band's performance. However, after much convincing from Melody, she ended up staying in bed. She fell asleep only minutes after Melody put her under the covers.

Josie had watched the entire exchange between the two and found it a bit peculiar. They were definitely acting differently than usual. While Melody was always a positive and friendly person, she had never seen her worry so much about Alexandra in particular before. Seeing Alexandra actually listen to someone else's advice was even more jarring.

She knew that they had both saved each other's lives in the past 24 hours. Still, it seemed a bit strange to her. For one, yesterday was certainly not the first time they had faced danger together.

Josie and the Pussycats went on to play a very successful gig. Alexandra slept through it all. She didn't wake again until the next morning when the band was preparing to leave for their next and final Scottish tour date in Fort William.

Quite rested, Alexandra was able to make it to the concert this time. The venue was another moderately large club packed with fans. Alexandra sat with her brother at a table near the bar to watch the show.

The set included all of the tracks off their new LP as well as a few older fan favorites such as "Stop, Look, and Listen" and "Road Runner." During all of it, Alexandra stared up at Melody on the drums. As the beautiful girl swayed her cat-ear wearing head back and forth with the rhythm, Alexandra was almost hypnotized into a trance.

The show seemed to have gone on longer than most of their sets, and both the crowd and Alexandra assumed it would soon be over. After the band finished playing "My Love Is like a Waterfall," Melody got up from her drum kit and Valerie left the stage. Melody walked up and stood in front of the band near a microphone, and Valerie returned without her tambourines and got behind Melody's drum kit.

"Hey, what the heck's going on?" Alexandra asked her brother.

"They're going to try out that new number they've been working on with Melody singing solo without any backup. They've been planning this for a while."

"Oh, really? Melody is going to sing solo?" She must have not been paying enough attention to the band's deliberations recently to have heard about these plans, but she could recall that Melody and Valerie had been having long discussions about lyrics for a new song.

Suddenly, Josie began strumming an enticing rhythm on her guitar, and Valerie began drumming a catchy beat. Valerie wasn't nearly as skilled as Melody on the drums, but she was proficient enough to get the job done. Melody then stepped up closer to the microphone, and soon, beautifully sung lyrics began escaping from her supple lips.

As was the case with many of their songs, the topic of this one was love. This time it was the tale of the unrequited love of a girl for someone nearby that was in love with someone else. Alexandra listened and watched intently. She was then completely caught off guard as Melody turned her head and stared directly into her eyes from forty feet away on the stage as she sang the chorus. "Baby, I want you in my arms and in my life. I know I'm the only one that can make you feel right. I want you. I need you. I want you."

Alexandra's cheeks lit up like two stop lights. As Josie and Valerie began playing the bridge, Melody gave a big wink aimed directly at Alexandra. Alexandra reacted by falling off of her bar stool to the ground.

"Sis? Sis! Are you all right? You look like you just had a heart attack!" he told her as he helped her back up off the ground.

"No, no, I think I'm gonna live," she said, sounding completely flustered and blushing madly.

Up on the stage, Melody stepped back away from the microphone and covered her lips so she could snicker for a moment. She then went back to the microphone and finished singing her song.

The band finished performing the song, which was the last song of their set. The show and especially Melody's solo performance had been a resounding success. In fact, the crowd had been whipped into a frenzy that almost broke out into a lust riot simply due to the fact that Melody, easily the most desired member of the band, had sung a love song with the refrain "I want you."

Eventually, things cooled down, and the club emptied. Backstage, Josie and Valerie were chatting with each other. "Wow, Melody did so great out there! I'm so proud of her!" Josie said.

"Me too. We should let her sing lead a lot more often. She did forget a few of the lyrics I worked on with her though, or she changed them anyways."

"Yeah? Which ones?"

"Well, instead of 'he was' she used 'you were' and stuff like that."

"Who cares? I think it sounded great!"

"Yeah, I think it's better that way actually. Kind of like she was singing directly to the audience or something. It definitely got a great response out of the crowd. That's for sure."

Melody and Alan joined them. They were all very congratulatory to Melody for her successful solo performance. She was very pleased to receive the attention but was humble enough to say that she wasn't the one responsible for it. Valerie assumed she was talking about the help she had given her in scribing the lyrics but told her that the song wouldn't have worked as well without her impassioned delivery.

Finally, Sebastian, Alexander, and Alexandra joined the four backstage.

"So what did you think, Alexandra?" Josie asked her, sarcasm strong in her voice. "Terrible as usual, right?" It was almost pointless to ask her this question since the answer was always the same, but either Josie or Valerie usually did so anyways out of tradition.

"To call it terrible would be a disservice to actual terrible bands. Maybe sub-terrible would be the more appropriate term," she said with much of her usual haughty attitude. Josie and Valerie groaned loudly. Alexandra then went on, "Except for Melody's solo number… _that…_ that was actually quite excellent. Lovely really. The drumming for the whole concert was also pretty groovy over all."

Melody lit up like the sun. "_Wooow,_ thank you so much, Alexandra!" She then gave her a beaming smile.

"You're welcome, Melody." Alexandra smiled pleasantly back at her.

Josie and Valerie's mouths were wide open in shock. "_I… I can't_ believe what I just heard," Josie said.

"Tell me about it," Valerie agreed. "Did we just enter the Twilight Zone?"

"Well, I guess Melody's number is going to be a huge hit if even Alexandra likes it," Alan said, also quite befuddled.

"Yeah, you got that right," Valerie agreed. "Just never go solo on us for real, Melody, or me and Josie are doomed."

Melody giggled. "Don't worry about it. I won't. I don't even know what solo means. Isn't a solo a kind of snack cake?"

"I think you're thinking of Ho-Hos," Josie told her.

"Well they're yummy, but how do you go Ho-Ho? Do I have to be dipped in chocolate and filled with cream?" Everyone groaned loudly and shook their heads. Everyone that is except for Alexandra, who was still smiling contently at her. Melody noticed, locked eyes with Alexandra, and smiled back.

Sometime later, Josie, Valerie, and Melody were relaxing in the suite they were sharing in the Fort William Hilton. They were all already dressed for bed. Josie wore another one of her simple nightgowns, this time light blue in color. Valerie wore a more elaborate and elegant purple silk nightgown, and Melody opted for an incredibly cute pair of pink polka-dot pajamas.

As they were contemplating what to order from room service, Josie suddenly realized why it was much more quiet and pleasant in the room than usual. "Where's Alexandra?" she asked.

"I heard her saying something about paying for her own suite," Valerie answered.

"She must have finally gotten too good to sleep with the rest of us girls," Josie said.

Melody looked a little upset. "You really think so? Not with any of us?" she asked her.

"Well, I don't know about you, Melody. You certainly seem to be on her good side," Josie told her.

"That's the understatement of the year," Valerie said. "I think that's the first real compliment I've ever heard from Alexandra to anyone other than Alan my entire life. Exactly what did you do with her in the woods the other day to get her like that? I mean other than what you did to the druid," Valerie added a bit uncomfortably. She hoped soon she would be able to wipe that fact from her memory completely. "But anyways, maybe you could clue us in. It would be heaven to get that girl off our backs too."

"I think I know what I did, but it's a secret," Melody said with a slightly devious expression.

"No fair, Melody!" Josie protested. Melody giggled.

"Yeah, keeping a goldmine like that a secret is just plain uncalled for!" Valerie agreed.

"Sorry, Valerie, but I can't," she said before giggling some more.

"Will you tell us for a hundred dollars?" Valerie asked.

"Nope."

"What about a thousand?" Josie asked.

"Nu-uh," she said, shaking her head cutely. Josie and Valerie both sighed and frowned.

The group then heard a knock at the door. "I'll get it," Josie said. She went and opened the door. She was greeted by a bell hop in a red uniform and cap standing on the other side.

"Mail for Miss Melody Jones," he said. He handed Josie the envelope.

"Thank you! Here, wait!" Josie went and fished in her purse for £5 bill and then handed it to the man. He thanked her and walked off. Josie handed Melody the envelope.

"More fan mail, huh?" Valerie asked.

"Let me see." Melody quickly ripped open the letter and read the note enclosed inside.

_Dear Melody,_

_My room number is 157. Please come over as soon as possible. However, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you're meeting me. Looking very forward to seeing you._

_Alexandra_

"So what does it say?" Josie asked her.

Melody quickly put the note behind her back. "_Oh, nothing._ Valerie was right. It's just more fan mail. _He he,_ you know me and my fans."

"Yeah, I know you have like ten times more fans than we do," Josie said, sounding unenthused.

"Maybe we'd be more successful if we changed the name of the band to Melody and the Pussycats," Valerie suggested. Josie gave her a nasty glare. "Hey, it was just an idea."

"I think I saw Chick-O-Sticks in the vending machine. Golly, I sure love Chick-O-Sticks! I think I'm going to go get one now. See you guys later!" she explained as she walked towards the door.

"That sounds good," Valerie said. "Get me one too."

"_Sorry, can't hear you! Bye bye!_" She then abruptly slammed the door shut.

"Is it just me or was Melody acting a little weird just now?" Valerie asked.

"You mean there's a time when Melody isn't acting weird?" Josie asked back.

"Great point."

A few short minutes later, Melody was standing barefoot in her pajamas in front of the door of Room 157. She knocked on the door, and a moment later, it opened. There stood Alexandra. She was dressed in her incredibly sexy and skimpy red nighty. She had also removed the bow that usually held her ponytail, allowing her vibrant dark hair to flow freely down her back. She was quite a sight to behold.

"Melody, _dear,_ I'm really glad you came over," she told her. She then gave her a very pleased but also somewhat nervous smile. Seeing Alexandra look even a little bit nervous was a bit strange. Even during all the times they had been faced with danger or abducted by villains, she had never shown a hint of nervousness.

Melody also noticed that for some reason Alexandra was blushing madly. She then tipped her head down at the slightly shorter dark haired girl. There was no mistake about it. Under that very skimpy, frilly, nearly see-through red nighty of hers, she was wearing absolutely nothing else. Her breasts and nearly everything else were almost completely exposed.

"Thanks for inviting me over, Alexandra," she said as she continued to take a peek down into Alexandra's curvy and almost completely bare cleavage.

"Come in please," she said as she stepped aside, still blushing wildly. Melody walked inside. After she passed through, Alexandra let go of the door. It slid back into the frame but did not close shut completely.

Melody was amazed by both the room's size and the opulence of its décor. "_Woooow,_ this is much nicer than our room!"

"It's the royal suite."

"Gosh, it must be expensive!"

"I'm rich you know. I can afford very nice things. I can spend a lot of money on anyone I want to. That's one of the perks of being _uh…_ friends with me."

"Oh, what are these?" Melody asked excitedly, eyeing the tray near the bed. It held a large plate covered with hors d'oeuvres.

"Those are canapés with quail eggs and black truffles."

"What's that?"

"Think of it as a really exquisite version of eggs and toast with really delicious mushrooms."

"That sounds really yummy! I love eggs and toast!"

"I know you do. I got them for you. I thought you might want a late night snack."

Alexandra watched pleasantly as the cute girl devoured one of the delicious disc shaped pieces of toast topped with a fried quail egg and decadent black truffles. "It's so yummy!" Alexandra smiled again, although she still looked a bit nervous. "Don't you want any, Alexandra?"

"No, I'm not hungry. They're all for you, Melody."

"Thank you!" she said before she continued gobbling them down.

Alexandra then went to a bottle of wine sitting in a bucket of ice near the bed. She removed the cork with the provided cork screw and then nervously went to pour it into one of the two glass goblets that were on the tray next to the plate of hors d'oeuvres. Melody noticed she was having trouble pouring it due to her hands shaking so badly. She stopped eating, took the bottle from Alexandra, and poured it for her.

"Wine too?" Melody asked.

"Yeah, I thought it would be nice to have some with you," she explained sheepishly.

"_He he._ Josie and Valerie don't seem to like me drinking alcohol. It's like they're almost afraid of what would happen. I don't know why though. It's funny, because people always ask me if I was drinking when I haven't been. I wonder why they do that," she said as she also poured Alexandra a glass.

"I have no idea, Melody," she fibbed. She had steadied her hand enough to drink at this point and took a long sip from the goblet. She then watched as Melody quickly gulped down her entire glass and then went to pour herself some more. "Wait, don't drink too much! I just want the wine to _ummm…_ help us take the edge off a bit."

"Take the edge off of what?" Melody asked with her usual cute confused look.

"It means it will relax us."

"_Ohh._" Melody then smiled, before she took a slower sip from her refilled glass. "Ok, Alexandra. I won't drink too much, but aren't you the one who needs to take the edge off?" she asked with a devious little look on her face.

"_Ye..yeah,_ you're right." She then took a much bigger drink out of her glass.

Melody raised her eyebrow and shot another suggestive look over at Alexandra. "_Sooo, Alexandra,_ why did you invite me over?"

"Well… I wanted to… have _a uh sleep over._"

"Yay! That sounds like fun! I'll go invite over Josie and Valerie!"

"No, don't!" she pleaded. "I just want it to be me and you, ok?"

Suddenly, Melody's smile edged up a bit into more of a smirk. "_Awww._ You want to spend time with me, huh?"

"_Yeah._" Alexandra's cheeks were again beat red, and she had trouble looking the cute blonde in the eyes. "I was thinking we could… _uh well_ you know."

Melody giggled. "Know what?"

"_You know…_" Alexandra grunted, getting frustrated.

"You mean you want to play Parcheesi?"

"No, I don't want to play Parcheesi, Melody," she said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Oh, then how about we play Candy Land? That's my favorite!"

"Listen, I don't want to play any board games… I want to… _do weird stuff,_" she said, almost whispering the last words.

"_He he. _Can you say that louder, Alexandra?"

"Weird stuff! All right!" she yelled. "You know what I mean. You seemed to want to do it before."

"Ok, weird stuff. Got it. Let's put our underwear on our heads and run around the lobby yelling, 'The pickles are coming! The pickles are coming!' That would be pretty weird, right?"

Alexandra rolled her eyes harshly. "Not that kind of weird… Listen, would you give me a break here, Melody? I'm not used to doing this kind of thing."

"_Ohhhhh,_" she said. "I think I know what you want."

Alexandra looked at her again. "You do?"

Melody shook her head up and down. "Uh huh," she chirped.

"Well, then what is it?"

"Bad Alexandra! I can't tell you. That's cheating! _He he he!_"

"Cheating? You really don't know what I mean, do you?" she asked, sounding irritated.

"Of course I do. But it's no fun to just tell you, silly! Close your eyes and sit down. Then I'll show you, and you can tell me if I got it right."

She sat down on the edge of the bed. "Close my eyes?"

"Uh huh," she chirped again cheerfully.

"Well, all right," Alexandra said, sounding very nervous. She closed her eyes and let out an audible gulp.

The very uncharacteristically nervous Alexandra just looked so adorable to Melody. She couldn't help but giggle at the sight of her. She then decided to just stand there and watch her for a bit to help build up the suspense.

As time passed by, Alexandra was getting more and more antsy. "Are you going to do anything or this just a joke?" she muttered. "This is getting stupid, Melo_-th-ma-maaaeh…_" she mumbled as she was cut off by Melody's wet lips being pressed against her own.

Alexandra's eyes shot open in surprise. Melody then put her hand on the back of Alexandra's head to hold her still as she deepened the kiss. As soon as the initial surprise wore off, Alexandra closed her eyes and allowed Melody to continue. With each movement of Melody's lips rubbing and sliding against Alexandra's, she seemed to push deeper and deeper into her mouth.

Soon, Alexandra began to reciprocate the kiss by moving her lips as well. Both girls fell into a pleasant, pleasurable rhythm. Alexandra put her arms around Melody and hugged her tight, partly because she wanted to and partly for support. The pleasure from simply feeling Melody's lips all over her mouth was almost too much for her to handle.

Finally, Melody removed her lips from Alexandra's mouth. It took a couple moments for Alexandra to open her eyes back up again. She was a bit disoriented. "So did I guess right?" Melody asked before giggling and giving her a sly grin.

"Yeah," Alexandra said, half-winded as she tried to catch her breath.

"So which one was better? This one or the first time I kissed you?"

"This one. It was longer and better, but I also really wanted it this time. I wanted it _so bad._"

Melody giggled pleasurably and then gave her an extremely pleased smile. "Me too, Alexandra. So how about we do it again?"

"Yes, please." They locked eyes and wrapped their arms back around each other. Their lips then slowly slid back into each other, and they both melted into another wonderful kiss.

Meanwhile, Alexander and Alan were in a room on the opposite end of the floor. Alan was already sound asleep in one of the two queen-sized beds. He wanted to be well rested for the long drive back to England tomorrow, so he had went to sleep a bit early.

Alexander, on the other hand, was searching through his luggage for some misplaced paperwork. Specifically, he was searching for the tour schedule and itinerary. He wanted to double check it to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything for the remaining tour dates. He then recalled that he had foolishly let Alexandra look at it in the van while they were traveling in-between tour stops a few days ago.

Despite the fact that she had insisted on being left alone tonight, he left the room and started walking down the hall towards Alexandra's suite.

It was a long walk, but soon he was at the door to the royal suite. Strangely, he found that the door was a small crack ajar. He gave it a gentle push, and it slid all the way open. He wasn't exactly prepared for what he saw on the other side.

After having spent the past few minutes thoroughly exploring every part of Alexandra's tongue with her own, Melody removed her tongue and lips from Alexandra's mouth. "And that's a French kiss."

"_Baby,_ you're _so_ good at that!"

"Can you believe I'm not even French?" she asked. "Oh, hi, Alexander!" Melody greeted him cheerfully after spotting him in the doorway.

His jaw was wide open in shock. When Alexandra saw him, she was absolutely furious. "If you don't get out of here right now, I swear to god I'm going to beat your chicken carcass to a bloody to pulp and then Kentucky fry you in a bat of oil! You hear me?" she screeched.

"_I… I… didn't see anything!_" he pleaded. Alexandra picked up the lamp on the nightstand and tossed it at him. He shut the door right before it would have hit him, and the lamp shattered into a hundred pieces.

Alexander started speed walking back down the hall. "_Jesus Christ,_ I need to learn how to knock. And why am I feeling so jealous of my sister right now?" he mumbled to himself.

Further down the hall, next to the vending the machine, were Josie and Valerie.

"Why does Melody have to be get so worked up after every single show?" Valerie complained. "Who knows where she wandered off to."

"Well, she did just get fan mail," Josie said. "Maybe she told some of the fans which hotel we were staying in."

Valerie rolled her eyes harshly.

"Hey, it wouldn't be the first time this has happened. I'm just saying it's a possibility." Valerie didn't dignify her with a response.

Suddenly, the two women ran into Alexander, who had just turned the corner in the hallway on the way back to his room. "Alexander! Do you know where Melody is?" Josie asked him. "We're looking for her."

"_M-m-melody?_" Alexander looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Yeah, have you seen her?" Josie asked.

"No, _I-I-I-I_ haven't," he stuttered nervously.

"Do you know Alexandra's room number?" Valerie asked. "Maybe we should ask her too."

"No, wait!" Alexander shouted. "You can't go there!"

Josie raised her eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Melody is in Alexandra's room, but they don't want to be bothered."

"Oh, she is?" Josie asked, sounding relieved. "But what would she be doing in Alexandra's room?"

"They're _uhhhh…_ playing chess. _Yeah… _chess. That's it."

Josie and Valerie both looked very suspicious. "Chess? You can't be serious," Valerie said.

"Yes, and they need a lot of concentration. So they don't want to be disturbed."

"I just can't imagine Alexandra or Melody playing chess," Josie said.

"I love chess," Valerie added. "But yeah, the idea of Melody, of all people, playing a game that requires that much strategy doesn't seem very believable."

"Yeah, they're both very bad at it. So it may take them all night to finish the game. You should just leave them alone. Anyways, I have to go now! I have important manager things to do. Phone calls, book keeping, you know! Later!" he said before he started sprinting down the hallway.

Josie and Valerie started walking back towards their suite. "What was with Alexander?" Valerie asked. "He looked scared out of his mind."

"He probably saw a mouse in the hallway."

Valerie chuckled. "Still, I can't get over the idea of Melody playing chess. I'm going to have to play a game with her sometime. I need to see this for myself."

"I just think it's really nice that Alexandra and Melody are getting along now."

"Well, if it helps take some of the heat off us with Alexandra, I'm certainly all for it."

Back in the royal suite, Alexandra was still quite upset. Melody finished putting the last ceramic shard of broken lamp into the garbage. She then locked the door and sat down next to Alexandra.

Alexandra was staring at the ground, dejected. "I can't believe that happened. This is bad…_ really bad._"

"It's not bad. Maybe for Alexander. I think I saw him pee his pants." She then giggled at how utterly terrified he was of Alexandra's fury.

"Well, he should know if he ever says anything, he's going to die," she said.

Melody put her hands on Alexandra's shoulders and began to give them a gentle, soothing rub. "Relax, Alexandra. You shouldn't let that bother you."

"Meow!" Sebastian agreed. The two suddenly noticed him next to them on the bed.

"What are you doing here?" Alexandra spat off. "Were you watching us too, you pervy fur-ball? _I'll skin you alive!_"

"_Mrow!_" Before she could grab him, he jumped off the bed and quickly ran under it.

Melody pulled Alexandra back closer to her and intensified the massage. With her petite but very skilled fingers, she kneaded away the tenseness of Alexandra's flesh. Soon, Alexandra was like putty in her hands. "This is supposed to be our night. Let's enjoy it, ok?" she whispered into her ear.

"Ok," Alexandra purred.

"_Good._" They both turned and again they kissed. However, after a couple minutes, Melody suddenly kissed away from her lips and across her cheek. She then slowly kissed down until her lips came to rest on the nape of her neck. She began kissing it intensely and lashed it a few times with her tongue. She then began gently sucking on it.

Pleasure shot through Alexandra's body, and she began moaning. That pleasure intensified when Melody took her right hand and began sliding her fingers back and forth across Alexandra's inner thigh. "_Oh, Melody,_" she cried out pleasurably.

Melody's fingers touched further and further up the inside of Alexandra's thigh. She then kissed over to her shoulder. When her lips met the strap of her nighty, she reached up with her free hand and slid it off. Alexandra suddenly pulled away from her and put back on her strap.

Melody looked up at Alexandra's deeply blushing face a bit surprised. "What's wrong?"

Alexandra averted her glance. "Well, _umm uh… grrrr,_" she finally growled, frustrated.

Melody giggled at her cute frown, "_He he he._ I may not know a lot of things, like arithmetic or what the capitol city of Boise, Ohio is, but I know when I'm being seduced, Alexandra. Isn't this what you wanted?"

Alexandra was still looking away from her. "Yeah," she blurted out, "but it's just…"

"Oh! You're nervous because you're a virgin," Melody realized. "Don't worry. I think that's _really_ cute!"

Alexandra was shocked. "_Wha-wha-wha?_ How did you know that?"

Melody scooted back over to her. She then ran her fingers through the white stripe of silky hair on the top of Alexandra's head and down through the long dark locks hanging down her back. She then continued to reach back up and do so again and again. The sensation felt strangely soothing to Alexandra. "I just thought so. We spend a lot of time together, Alexandra. I think I know you a lot better than you think I do. And isn't that what the V on that ray gun meant?" she asked.

Despite Melody's soothing touch, she was still extremely embarrassed. "Even Valerie didn't figure that out," she said, befuddled. "I thought you said it meant ventriloquist."

"I said that because I thought it would be funny," she said, giggling some more. "Besides, saying it meant virgin would be really embarrassing."

"_Thank you._"

"_He he,_ don't mention it. I just can't believe Captain Kirk is such a pervert. But anyways, it's not a big deal if you're a virgin. "

"It is."

"No, it's not."

"You don't understand, Melody. For five years, I've been… _saving myself_ for Alan. Ever since high school. Since you first hired him as your roadie. Maybe even since the moment I first saw him. I've waited and waited for him to make the right decision. But it never did any good. I should've realized five years ago that Josie had him wrapped around her little stupid finger and that was never going to change. _But I'm a fool._ I realized how much of a fool I was when I saw them doing that in the woods."

"You're not a fool, Alexandra," Melody said.

"Yes, I am. _A stupid fool_. I'm just so angry I wasted something like that on Alan. _I dunno._ I feel like if I don't get rid of my virginity soon, I'll never be able to start my life over again."

"So you just need me to help you?"

"_No…_ It's more than that, _all right?_"

"What do you mean, Alexandra?"

"Well, I had a lot of time to think while I was tied to that rock, waiting for that robe wearing loser to kill me. I just kind of realized a few things. I've been spending my entire life trying to impress everyone. Not just Alan, but my rich successful parents, the snobs at school, and everyone else. Problem is I'm not good at anything. I'm not like you, Melody. I'm talentless. I wish I wasn't, but I am. I'm also not a good person. All I can do is fake it and pretend I'm actually somebody and try to make everyone else believe it. In the end, though, I kind of get the sense that everyone hates me. They just don't say it to my face, but I know that's how they really feel. But with you, I've been absolutely terrible to you…"

"No, you haven't."

"Yes, I was," she corrected her, "but unlike everyone else, you never got mad back at me. I put you down, made fun of you, and all you've been is nice, friendly, and kind to me. I realize now you're one of the only real friends I have. And when you did _that stuff…_ kissed me, and held me, and everything else you did, I didn't want to admit it at the time, but it made me happy. I didn't even know I could like girls, but you made me feel special. And I haven't felt special for a long time. So I want to do it with you. I'm sorry. You probably think I'm some kind of crazy nutcase now, but that's how I feel."

"I don't think you're a nutcase, Alexandra. You don't even like nuts, and I don't think you're crazy either. I'm never going to think badly of you like that. You don't have to impress me or anything. I like you, and I like you just for being Alexandra. If anyone hates you, I don't think they know you like I do. You're not a bad girl. You're a good girl. You've never really done anything that bad. Your plans usually backfire. I just think they're funny! But I know you have a really good heart. You're just passionate. Maybe sometimes too passionate for your own good, but that's what I like about you. And you're one of the sweetest people I know."

"It's not true. I'm not sweet at all…"

"Yes, you are. I saw it every single time you were around Alan. Some people think I'm stupid, but you know what? Alan is stupid too. Josie has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. Still, I can tell you loved him so much more than she does. The way you acted around him. You were just so sweet. You loved him so much. It honestly made me really jealous of him. I wished it was me instead."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Like you would've noticed or cared, silly. You had Alan on the brain!"

"Well, I don't anymore. That's over. I'm through with him. I mean it."

"_He he._ I know. That's why I'm feeling really lucky right now. Maybe I can be the one who makes you happy instead."

Alexandra blushed brightly again. "You really feel that way? You're not just making this all up?"

"Of course not. And I've wanted to have sex with you for a really long time. I really want this too. You're not the only one. That's why I made that song. "

Alexandra's blush intensified several times more. "Seriously? That was about me?"

Melody shook her head up and down. "You're just so cute, Alexandra. You don't even know it. Even when you're mad, you're so cute! Of course I want to do it with you. But we're not just going to have sex. We're going to make love too."

"I think those are the same thing, dumb dumb."

Melody put her finger on her chin. "_Hmmm._ I don't think so. They're different. I've had sex a lot of times, but I think I only made love a few times."

"How are they different?"

"Well, having sex is a lot of fun, but making love is a lot better! I think it's like showing someone how much you like them by making them feel good with your body."

Alexandra's face was about as red as it could possibly be at this point. However, despite the fact the idea of doing something like that with Melody truly excited her, she still felt apprehensive. "That sounds really good, Melody, but there's a problem though." She frowned again.

Melody paid her frown back with a cute smirk. "And what could that be?"

Alexandra's frown turned into a scowl. "Promise you won't tell anyone any of this stuff I've told you? I swear if you do, I'll give you a pounding!" she said, raising a clenched fist.

"_He he he! _Cross my heart and hope to die!"

"Well… I don't know what to do. I know two girls can do it, but I don't know how. I don't know anything about sex, making love, or anything else. I don't know how to do it with boys or girls… _I haven't even touched myself before._"

"_Awwwww._ Don't worry. It's really easy. I'll show you what to do, and then we can have lots of fun!"

"Well, ok, but it's not _gonna…_" she trailed off, frowning again.

"Not gonna what?"

"_It's not going to hurt, is it?_" she finally managed to mumble. Admitting she had such thoughts was more humiliating than she could stand.

Melody took Alexandra's hand and gripped it tightly between her palms. "I promise I won't hurt you, Alexandra."

"Really?"

"I promise. I just want to make you feel good. Do you trust me?"

Alexandra's expression softened. "Yeah. I don't know why. I didn't feel like this before, but I really feel like I can trust you now."

"I'm so glad." Melody gave her a really happy, warm smile. "I trust you too, Alexandra. Let's share this, ok?"

Alexandra smiled from ear to ear back at her. "Ok." Melody smiled back again. She then reached up and again slipped one strap of Alexandra's nightgown off of her shoulder. She did the same to the other and then slowly pulled the nighty down off of her body. The fabric slid down over her curvy chest and then past her waist, thighs, legs, and feet until it was completely removed. Melody took a moment to marvel at her nude form on the bed. "You're so cute, Alexandra."

Alexandra simply gave a shy smile back as she blushed madly. Melody then slowly stripped off her pajamas and then slowly pulled down the panties that were underneath. Alexandra would have complimented her as well, but she was speechless. Putting the beauty of Melody's nude body into words would have simply been too difficult.

Melody then crawled on top of Alexandra and their lips reconnected. Both women kissed each other passionately with equal enthusiasm. As their lips mashed together, Alexandra grabbed onto Melody's back and pulled her voluptuous frame against her own naked body tight. Soon, though, Melody removed her lips and tongue from Alexandra's mouth. She again kissed across her cheek with little, short, but intense pecks and slowly moved down her neck. After giving the nape of her neck some more attention, much to Alexandra's liking, she started kissing further down her body until she reached her breast.

Alexandra felt intense pleasure. It was a completely new sensation to her, and it was an utterly wonderful one as well. That night Alexandra would experience many new sensations, each more wonderful than the last. Melody knew exactly what to do to make her body feel good, many times in ways Alexandra didn't even know were possible.

Not only was she a skilled lover, but she was also extremely tender as well. She knew to take a slower pace with Alexandra, and she was certainly very happy to do so. It allowed both of them to savor this time together. Beyond the physical pleasure Melody gave her, Alexandra enjoyed the closeness and deep romantic bonding they were able to share. Often, Melody would give long glances into Alexandra's eyes as she gave her pleasure, and Alexandra would stare back contently as she blushed and moaned.

Despite her previous apprehension, Alexandra was easily able to reciprocate. Melody only had to guide her fingers and help her reposition her body into the right spot a few times. Alexandra caught on quickly and was soon able to give the same pleasure back to her. She was surprised that she enjoyed providing Melody with pleasure almost as much as she enjoyed receiving it. It felt good to make her feel good, and she was especially glad that it was Melody she was able to do this for.

The night went on. Another thing Alexandra soon learned was that Melody's boundless exuberance translated to the bedroom as well. Although she eventually became a bit overwhelmed as the minutes slowly slipped into hours, she was happy to try to keep up. She simply did not want the night to end. The moments they shared were simply too precious.

Eventually, however, Melody decided to give it a rest, and her and a now rather exhausted Alexandra cuddled together nude under the warm covers.

"_Mmmm…_ This feels really nice," Alexandra said, sounding wonderfully relaxed in the comfort of Melody's soft embrace.

"Cuddlin' afterwards is one of my favorite parts," she explained.

"I think it's one of my favorite parts too," she said, snuggling her head further in between Melody's cushy breasts. "Can you please hold me like this forever?"

Melody giggled. "I'll try." She then tightened her embrace around her and tipped her head down to kiss the spot where Alexandra's white stripe met her forehead. Alexandra murmured pleasurably as she felt the smooch. "So did you like your first time?"

"Like?" Alexandra asked. "I was always worried it wouldn't be as special as I wanted it to be. But with you, Melody, it was everything I wanted. In fact, it was much better than I ever thought it could be."

"_Awwwww._" Melody squeezed Alexandra in her arms. "I'm glad I did my job. _He he._"

"Are you kidding me? I didn't know it could be _that_ good. I had no idea. That thing you say is definitely true."

"What's that?"

"That you're good at two things. One of them is keeping a beat."

"_Ohhhhh._ So that's what that means. No wonder Josie was so mad at me when I said that to her parents. _Oops!_" Both women cracked up into uproarious laughter and giggling.

"God, I wish I was there so I could've seen the look on Josie's stupid face," she said before cracking up again.

Finally, they calmed down a bit. Alexandra was still a little curious however. "That sounds like something a guy would tell you though," she explained. "Does that mean you _uhh_ do it with guys too?" For some reason, Melody could detect a little bit of worry in the tone of her voice.

"Yup, I have. Not for a while though. Boys are kinda boring. They do their thing, and then they're done. But with a girl like you, I can just play and play. It's so much more fun! And even if it was your first time, you still did a really good job, Alexandra. Way better than any boy. Girls just seem to know what you want._ Hmmm,_ I wonder why that is."

"Is it because they're also girls?"

"Wow, I never thought of that! Golly, you sure are smart, Alexandra!"

"Dumb dumb," Alexandra said playfully as she reached up and patted Melody's head. Melody giggled. "But I guess that means you do it with girls a lot though, huh?" she asked, again sounding a bit apprehensive.

"_Wellll..._ One time I did it with some of our groupies. Actually, that was like three or four times. Or maybe it was five or six. Or seven or eight. Or maybe it was more like 32 times. I forget. _He he he!_ Oh, and I did it with this Japanese pop singer who opened for us when we were on tour in Japan. And I did it with Betty and Veronica when we played at their prom and they were mad at Archie for dumping them for that Cheryl girl. And then the next prom, I did it with Cheryl after she got mad at Archie for dumping her for Betty and Veronica. And I did it with my old friend Pepper a few times. And once with my cousin, Sally. And then my other cousin, Jennie. And the mail lady, and the garbage lady, and this lady cop who pulled me over, and this girl who worked at McDonald's, and the manager at Burger King, and…"

"All right, all right, I've heard enough!" Alexandra shouted from her arms, freaked out. "For the love of god, please shut up!"

"_He he he._ Sorry."

There was a long silence before Alexandra spoke again, "_Umm,_ well… Listen, I don't care about any of that. It's _uh..._ in the past. But _um,_ I'm kinda possessive you know."

Melody giggled loudly. "Really?" she asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, so I'd kinda like to have you to myself if we're going to do this kind of stuff."

"_Awwww._ Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, Alexandra?"

Alexandra thought about that question for a moment. Even though she had time to think about all of it recently, the past few days had been such a whirlwind of events and emotions that she had still been a bit confused about what all of it had really meant. However, at that moment, it was beginning to make more sense to her. There was a clear answer to Melody's question, and it's what she had really wanted all along. The corners of Alexandra's mouth curved up into a big smile accented by her very rosy cheeks. "Yeah, I guess I am. Will you be my girlfriend, Melody?"

"I'd love to!" Melody slid down further into the bed, and they both shared another intensely intimate kiss. "Don't worry about all the other girls, Alexandra. You're all I need. In fact, you're all I wanted anyways. The groupies were always really confused when I told them to call me dumb dumb," she explained before snickering.

"I don't know if I should be flattered or creeped out," Alexandra said, befuddled.

Melody giggled at her reaction, and again they kissed. "But if you want to be my girlfriend, I have two conditions," she said in an uncharacteristically serious sounding voice.

"Yeah?" Alexandra asked, a bit taken aback by her seriousness. "What are they?"

"First, I never want to hear you talking about not going on tour with us anymore again. If we go on tour, you have to come with me. I need to have you for kissin, and cuddlin, and playin. And I want you as my best friend too. That's your job in the band now."

"Sure. In fact, I want to do that now anyways. I want to be with you."

"Good!" Melody squeezed her and kissed her on her nose. "And there's one more thing. This is the most important thing. It's very, very, very important and very, very, very serious."

"What is it?"

"You have to be my pet skunk."

"I refuse! Like I said before, I refuse to be compared to a lowly, smelly skunk," Alexandra spat off, very annoyed.

"_Hmph!_ Fine then!" Melody took her arms off of Alexandra and then turned over in the bed to face away from her.

Alexandra put her hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Melody. This is just stupid." Melody only responded by jerking her shoulder out from under Alexandra's palm. "_Ugh,_ can't I be something else like a cat?"

Sebastian meowed loudly in protest from the end of the bed. Alexandra picked up her pillow and threw it at him, knocking him off the bed. "No one asked you, you pervy cat!"

"No, I want a skunk," Melody pouted.

Alexandra sighed. "Skunks smell really bad. You know that, right?"

"No they don't! Stop saying such mean things about skunks! They're cute, and I love them," Melody again pouted.

"They're not cute."

"Nah-uh. The skunk is the cutest animal. Oh, I wanted one so badly when I was a little girl, but mommy and daddy wouldn't let me have one. It made me so sad."

Alexandra groaned miserably. "All right."

Melody turned over in bed. "What?"

"All right I said."

"What's all right?" Melody asked teasingly.

Alexandra rolled her eyes harshly. "All right, I'll be your skunk," she said before frowning.

"_Squeeee!_" She then opened her arms. "Come here my little skunky, let me pet you!"

Reluctantly, the still frowning Alexandra scooted over in bed back into Melody's embrace. Immediately, Melody placed her hand on top of her head and began moving her fingers back and forth over Alexandra's white stripe like she was petting a small furry animal.

"Do you like being petted, my little skunk?"

"No," Alexandra groaned. She was still frowning miserably, but her lower lip was quivering a bit.

Melody saw this and smirked. She then began petting her head more intensely. As she did so, she moved her other hand to her bare back and began massaging it in a soothing circular motion. "I think you're fibbing, skunky. I think you really do like it."

"Maybe."

"_He he he._ And why's that?"

"Because I like it when you touch me, ok?"

"Guess I know how to tame you now," Melody said before giggling again.

"There's something I want to talk about too…"

"What is it, Alexandra?"

"Can we keep this a secret, you know us being girlfriends and all that?"

"Aww, why?" Melody asked, sounding disappointed. "I want everyone to know."

"I just don't want it to get out. I know Alexander already knows, but he knows if he says anything he won't live to his next birthday."

"Why can't it get out?"

"Well, I don't care what anyone else thinks. They can all go to hell as far as I care. It's just Daddy is not exactly easy to please, and he's kind of… _conservative._ I think if he learned about this, he might try to disown me and write me out of my inheritance."

"Wow, he would really do that?"

"I really don't know. It kinda scares me."

"I'm so sorry, Alexandra," she said, hugging her tight.

"Don't be. It's not your fault. And you know, if it gets out, it could be bad for you too."

"How so?" Melody asked.

"You're in a famous band. It could cause a scandal."

"I think a lot of my fans already know I like girls," she said before snickering.

"What about the media?"

"Is that the disease that makes it hurt when you pee?"

"No, it's not a disease, Melody. I mean like newspapers and magazines and stuff."

"_Ohhh._ I don't think so, but that would be really cool! Then I could be like the girl Freddie Mercury. You know, we're good friends." She then noticed that Alexandra still looked nervous. "But I'll try to keep it a secret, Alexandra, if that's what you really want. The main thing I want to do is make you happy."

For some reason, Alexandra felt guilty about forcing Melody to do that, but she didn't really understand the reason why. She felt better after she snuggled her cheek back into Melody's very cushy chest. "Thank you. You're like an angel. I still don't understand why you're being so nice to me."

"Because I like you and care about you, silly, and you deserve it. Like I said, you're a good girl."

Alexandra closed her eyes and gave a very pleasant expression as she nuzzled her cheek deeper into Melody's bosom. "Will you really be all mine?"

"I'm all yours, Alexandra."

"_All mine…_" A few seconds later, Melody heard Alexandra's somewhat nasally snoring and snickered at it a bit.

As she continued to cradle the snoring woman in her arms, Melody leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head. "Sweet dreams, my sweet little skunk."

To Be Continued


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in any way.

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading! Also, please review. Your comments can sometimes be great inspiration to keep writing. I also want to mention I corrected two typos in Chapter 5 recently.

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 6

Three weeks had passed. Josie and the Pussycats were now at the end of the last leg of their United Kingdom tour that had brought the band west of Britain to the emerald isle known as Ireland.

The concert in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, had been especially successful and set an attendance record for that particular stadium. Despite not being part of the UK, the tour also extended south to the independent and sovereign Republic of Ireland where the band played to sold out crowds in Dublin, Waterford, and Cork. Now, only one tour date remained in the beautiful island lush with green vegetation and rich with culture.

Currently, Josie, the Pussycats, Alexandra, Alexander, Alan, and actual cat, Sebastian, were sauntering down the peaceful cobblestone streets of the tourist district of Limerick. Limerick was an ancient city that was first settled by Vikings that had traveled to Ireland by ship over one thousand years before. In the centuries since then, the city slowly evolved into a bustling metropolis. It still, however, managed to retain much of its antiquated charm.

Having explored several historic landmarks, including the sprawling Castle of King John, earlier that afternoon, the group had decided to get in some shopping before dinner and settling in at the hotel. The next night the band was performing at a concert in the city's outdoor amphitheater with special guests, the Neptunes. They wanted to get plenty of rest so that Josie and the Pussycats could cap off their tour with a very memorable performance.

"Have you heard about the man from Nantucket?" Alexander asked Melody, who was to his side in the group.

"No, I haven't," the cute blonde answered. "Was he an astronaut? Did he like chilidogs? Did he invent the arc transmitter, whatever that is? _He he he hoo hoo hoo,_" she chuckled.

"No, but there once was a man from Nantucket, whose di-…" Suddenly, a dainty feminine hand in the shape of a fist flew over and socked Alexander's shoulder hard, producing a loud crack.

"Ouch!" he cried.

"No more limericks, _ding-a-ling!_" Alexandra, the owner of the fist, screeched at her brother.

"Hey, it's not my fault. When in Rome, do as the Romans do!" he shouted back at her.

"We're in Rome?" Melody asked, befuddled. "But I thought we were in Ireland! _Golly!_"

Alan and Josie sighed, and Sebastian meowed in agreement. "It's just a saying, Melody," Valerie explained, also exasperated with her constant confusion regarding everything during this particular tour.

"So we're not dressing in togas?"

"No, Melody," Josie groaned.

"_Aww,_" she said, disappointed, "but then what about the man from Nantucket?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know," Josie told her.

"But I do want to know! _Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!_" she whined cutely. Alexander opened his mouth to answer her but quickly closed his lips again when he saw Alexandra grimacing at him and raising her fist in his direction.

Melody would have continued whining if she hadn't spotted something in the corner of her eye that immediately diverted her attention. It was a display in the plate glass window of a store across the street. She suddenly ran across the uneven cobblestone road, causing an old truck hauling a pen of sheep to come to a screeching halt. As the sheep baaed in protest, Melody disappeared through the door of the shop.

"Where's she off to now?" Josie asked.

"Looks like another knick-knack store," Alan answered her.

Suddenly, the door to the store reopened and Melody poked her cute head outside. "_Skunky-poo! Ohhhh, skunky-pooooo!_" she called across the street.

Suddenly, Alexandra, the only girl in the group with a skunk-like white stripe cascading down her luscious black hair, went as red as a well ripened tomato. She started looking around nervously in other directions as if to suggest she was calling out to someone else. "Gee, I wonder what that weirdo is blathering about now?" she asked.

Josie started giggling loudly as if she was in the third grade and a boy she had a crush on had just passed her a very flirtatious note. Alexander gave an amused and somewhat pleased smile. Alan and Valerie's reactions, however, were much more subdued and indecipherable.

"_Skunky-poo! Come over here! Skunky-poooo!_" Melody cried across the street again.

Josie lightly pushed Alexandra's back. "You better go see what she wants," she said, before giggling some more.

"Yeah, ok," she shyly agreed. "_Coming!_" she shouted at Melody from across the street. When she got near the entrance to the store, she was quickly grabbed by the arm by the blonde girl and dragged inside over to the shelf that had caught her attention.

"Melody, I thought I told you not to call me that in public anymore! People are going to find out something is going on between us," Alexandra chided her.

"_Oh,_ I'm sorry… _I forgot,_" Melody said, sounding uncharacteristically dejected. Alexandra could see the look of hurt in her eyes.

For some reason, Alexandra suddenly felt guilty. Guilt was a very new feeling to her. It was one of several new emotions she had only begun to experience after the incident in Abernethy Forest. She was still having trouble learning how to deal with them all. She bit her lower lip as she thought about how to respond for a moment. "_Well, ummm… _just forget about it... What did you want, Melody?"

Melody grabbed her shoulder and pointed at the shelf covered with tiny little statues of boys and girls in traditional Irish dress. They were made of intricately sculpted and painted porcelain. The attention to detail showed obvious craftsmanship. Each figurine was unique and displayed different scenes of rural Irish farm life. Alexandra could also see from the amount of Irish pounds marked on the price tags that they were quite expensive.

"I can't decide which one to buy! They're all just _soooo cute!_ I need you to help me!" Melody explained.

"_Hmmm._" Alexandra looked over at the figures. While obviously well-made and certainly expensive, normally such trinkets would be beneath her. Her cultured upbringing had convinced her that she was only worthy of the finest fine art. However, she was feeling less dogmatic about that currently and looked over each of the figurines carefully. Then she spotted it. It was a statue of a little girl with long blonde hair wearing a flowing green dress and carrying a wooden pail of water. She pointed at it. "That one."

"Oh, that one's cute too! But why that one?"

Alexandra smirked. "Because it looks like you." Melody giggled in delight. Alexandra looked around to see if anyone was nearby. Other than the shop owner who was far on the other side of the store, they were alone. "Although, it's not nearly as cute as you are. Pretty hard to match the cutest girl in the world."

Melody giggled again, and her cheeks were soon red and beaming with happiness. "You're _soooo _sweet, Alexandra. But didn't you used to say you were the cutest girl in the world?"

"I lied," she said bluntly. That was the truth. Secretly, she had always thought Melody was the most gorgeous thing she had ever laid eyes on, but she had been in deep denial about it for years.

"Thank you," she said, swooning. "OK, I'll get this one!" As she reached for it, though, Alexandra grabbed her wrist.

"Wait, you said you liked all of them, right?"

"Yeah, they're all _so_ cute!"

Alexandra's devilish smirk widened. "Then it's settled. I'll just have to buy all of them for you."

"But they're so expensive, and there's so many!"

"I'm rich remember. That's like pocket change to me. When you're with a Cabot, you get _the absolute_ _best!_" she said with a good amount of her trademark smugness.

"You don't have to impress me, Alexandra. All I want is you."

"I know that, but I just want to do something nice for you, all right?"

Melody looked into her eyes. She saw sincerity. Alexandra was still trying to find ways to show affection to her girlfriend. She was still slightly awkward about it, but she had certainly been trying. Melody knew this was just one of the ways she knew how to show her feelings. "_Well, ok! Thank you!_" Melody chirped excitedly. She then engulfed the dark haired girl in a tight hug. After giving her a good squeeze, she literally started jumping up and down, overwhelmed with excitement.

Alexandra was still giving quite a satisfied smirk as she walked up to the store owner. She explained to him that she wanted to purchase all of the hand crafted figurines on that particular display and wanted to have them shipped to America. He seemed more than happy to oblige. Melody hopped over to the cash register to watch the transaction. "_Golly,_ that's got to be a lot of pesos!"

The elderly store owner gave an annoyed expression. "_Pounds… dumb American,_" he muttered under his breath in his strong Irish accent.

Alexandra had heard him and was immediately enraged. She reached across the counter, grabbed his collar, and dragged him nearly all the way over it. "_You..._ You better apologize to her right now, _or so help me God, _I'm going to make you eat half of those statues and then shove the other half straight up _your ugly Irish arse! You understand me?_" she huffed and puffed as flames literally shout out of her eyes and mouth.

The store owner relieved himself over the counter as he trembled with fear. _"Aye! My apologies, m'lady! I didn' mean it!_"

A few minutes later, the two exited the store. Alexandra was still fuming with anger. "I can't believe the nerve of that guy! With all the money I spent in there, he could take the next month off!"

Alexandra was caught off guard when Melody gazed directly into her with her mesmerizing big blue eyes with a look of complete and total adoration. "Thank you for defending me," she cooed lovingly.

Melody's warm expression of completely pure and innocent love melted right through Alexandra's irritation and resentment. She was immediately calm again. "No problem," she said. She was also blushing again, something she couldn't control whenever the blonde girl showed her love. "Just don't listen to him. You're smart, Melody, dear. Really, you are."

"_He he he._ Ok, just as long as I still get to be your dumb dumb," she said. Alexandra again looked at her girlfriend and saw that she was literally wiggling. She could tell she was barely able to restrain the impulse to hug and kiss the life out of her. Alexandra bit her lower lip, reached over, and touched Melody's hand. However, after she saw Josie, Alan, and the others walking towards them from down the street, she quickly retracted it.

"So what was all the excitement about?" Alan asked. In reality, he didn't sound that interested.

"Alexandra bought me 72 cute little adorable figures!" Melody explained, again hopping up and down.

"Wow, how nice of Alexandra!" Josie remarked.

"I know!" Melody chirped.

"Hey, skunky-poo, why don't you lend your dear older brother some money if you're spending so much of it?" Alexander asked her.

Alexandra turned around and gave him a darkly disturbing scowl so petrifying that probably only Lizzie Borden's parents had seen a girl with an equally hateful expression right before they were chopped into tiny bits with her axe. "Do you like having a spleen?" Alexander was so terrified that he stepped backwards and fell on the ground. Alexandra walked and stood over him, giving him the same terrifying look. "I said, do you like having a spleen?" she growled even louder.

"Yes," he cried before hiding his head in between his knees.

"Then don't ever call me that again!" Alexander only responded by whimpering from under his knees.

Soon the group had started moving again. They visited more shops, and the girls made a few more minor purchases. It wasn't long though before Alexandra started shooting long glances over in Melody's direction. It was a look she had only given her, and Melody understood what it meant immediately. She had seen it on several different occasions now. It was a signal that Alexandra was craving some intimate alone time with her in some faraway hidden nook so they could share their passion for each other where they would not be seen.

Melody repaid the looks back with her own long suggestive glances, only intensifying Alexandra's desire to be with her lover. Growing tired of the waiting, Melody approached Josie as the group left another gift shop. "Josie, I think me and Alexandra are going to go off on our own for a while." Alexandra stood by her, trying to not look suspicious but failing somewhat.

Unbeknownst to both of them, the fact they had been looking at each other in a longing manner had not gone unnoticed by Josie. "Just as long as you two promise to behave," she teased them.

"Yeah, _um…_ don't worry about it. We'll be fine," Alexandra answered, sounding uncharacteristically nervous. Josie smirked from ear to ear.

"What are you guys going to do?" Valerie asked.

"We're going to make out," Melody answered before giggling like a child.

"Make out Christmas cards!" Alexandra suddenly cut in, her face as red as Rudolph's nose. "Yeah, make out Christmas cards. That's what we're doing all right." She then slapped her forehead with her palm in disbelief that she had said something that barely made any sense. However, it was the only thing she could think of at the time.

"How do you make out with a Christmas card?" Melody asked Alexandra innocently.

Alexandra hit her hard in the arm with her elbow. "You know, write them out so you can mail them to people later."

"_Ohh, _right. I think I understand," Melody said, nodding her head up and down.

Josie again couldn't control her snickering. Valerie, on the other hand, seemed more perplexed. "Isn't July a bit early for that? And why would you have Christmas cards now in the first place?" she asked.

"_Uh,_ we saw a Christmas store earlier," Alexandra answered her. "We thought it would be fun to buy Christmas cards early and write them out now so we can mail them in December."

"I didn't see any Christmas store," Valerie said, still a bit confused. Josie was still snickering and was now joined by Sebastian who was doing the same from the cobblestones next to her. Alexander gave another slightly amused grin.

Alan, on the other hand, seemed completely indifferent to the awkward conversation all together. He had, in fact, been acting rather aloof when around Alexandra in general lately. Most of the others hadn't really noticed. They assumed his recent lack of enthusiasm when with the group was probably a result of the stitches in his face giving him a rather Frankenstein like appearance.

"It's off on a side street. You probably just missed it while you were daydreaming about more of those stupid, kooky inventions of yours," Alexandra sneered.

"Hey! It just so happens the transistor pattern for my instant weather machine isn't working out, and I need to figure out a way to remap it! Of course I was thinking about that!" she protested. Alexandra breathed a sigh of relief and then smirked victoriously. "But anyways, for some reason, I guess buying Christmas cards in July sounds kind of fun. Can I come too?"

Josie suddenly grabbed Valerie by the arm. "Valerie has more shopping to do with the boys and me. We'll meet you later back at the hotel," Josie told Alexandra and Melody. Valerie struggled to get out of Josie's grasp, but she ignored her and tightened her grip like a vice. "You two just make sure to have lots of fun, ok?" she said, smiling at the couple. "If you don't make it back in time for dinner, just find a nice place to eat together alone, all right?"

"Sure thing! Thanks, Josiekins!" Alexandra said, sounding truly grateful. "I'll make sure to get you a real nice Christmas card!" Valerie shot her eyes back and forth between the two women nervously in disbelief. Although the two had certainly been acting much more amicable towards each other lately, it was still extremely off-putting to her. Only a few weeks ago, those two getting along had seemed as likely as a Martian invasion.

Josie's smile widened even more. "Just make sure you save the nicest card for Melody, ok?" she said before giving her a big wink.

Alexandra's blush brightened several times over. "Yeah, I will," she said somewhat sheepishly, again completely untypical of her. She was beginning to suspect that maybe Josie knew more than she had assumed. Josie giggled at her reaction.

"Happy Hanukah, everyone!" Melody cheered as she and Alexandra walked away together.

"Mazel tov," Alexander answered her.

Alexander, Alan, and Sebastian started walking down the street in the direction they had been going. Josie and Valerie followed close behind.

"What was that about?" Valerie asked her.

Josie didn't answer her question. Instead, she seemed to be lost in her own world with her hands clasped together and sparkles glistening in her eyes. "Aren't they just the cutest thing you've ever seen?" Josie asked, almost swooning.

Valerie looked around a moment to see who she was referring to. "You mean Alan and Alexander?" she asked, raising an eye brow.

"No, Alexandra and Melody, silly. They're just _sooo_ sweet together. I still almost can't believe it. And the fact they don't think we know about it makes it _even cuter!_"

Valerie rolled her eyes harshly. "Oh great, not this conspiracy theory again," she mumbled.

Josie seemed a bit annoyed by her reaction. "I can't believe you're still in denial about this, Val. You're supposed to be the scientific one. I thought you would have figured it out first."

"Yes, I'm very scientific. Science tells me that certain things are impossible. A circle's ratio from circumference to diameter is 3.14 or pi. It can't suddenly equal 3.15. This is one of those things."

"Ok, Professor Smith, but you seem to be ignoring a lot of evidence here. They've slept in the same hotel room _alone _for the past eight shows! And have you seen how they look at each other?" Josie asked, still in disbelief that Valerie could be this stubborn.

"Yes, those things are a little strange, but you're jumping to conclusions. Alexandra and Melody can't be like that. It's just one of those things that can't possibly happen."

"Oh, and why not?" Josie asked with a little venom in in her voice. "Is this just like you pretending Melody didn't like her groupies back?"

"Listen, it isn't just because they're both girls, ok?" she snapped back, now sounding really irritated. "Melody and Alexandra are like oil and water. Melody is sweet and innocent. Alexandra is just _pure evil._ They could never possibly mix together like that."

"You've never really been in love have you?"

"_What? Are you crazy?_" Valerie yelled, totally incensed. "Just who do you think wrote _at least half_ of the love songs on those gold records of ours? _Besides,_ you know as well as I do that I've been in about ten times more relationships _than you have!_ Compared to me, you're practically _a virgin!_"

"You didn't answer my question," Josie said plainly.

Suddenly, Valerie looked over to a store on her right. "Oh look, a hardware store! I think I need to go buy some parts for my weather machine!" She then nervously scampered off towards the store. Josie simply shook her head and smiled.

Down the street in the opposite direction, Alexandra and Melody were still strolling along. "We're not going to a Christmas store are we?" Melody asked her.

"Nope. There isn't one," she answered. "Sorry, Melody."

"I said something I shouldn't have, didn't I?"

"Don't worry about it," she told her calmly.

A bit of concern appeared on Melody's face. "But, Alexandra, you said not to say things like that in front of people. Didn't I screw up?"

"No, Melody. You didn't screw up."

"But you told me not to do that so many times, because then they could find out, but I keep messing up. Why aren't you mad at me? I don't understand."

"Listen, Melody. You _were…_ being yourself. That's just the way you are. I get that."

"Just the way I am?" Melody asked, obviously puzzled.

"Yeah, and you accepted me even though I was an evil bitch. No one ever did that before, but you did. What kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't accept you for who you are?"

Melody looked even more confused. "I don't think I get it."

Alexandra gave a big smirk at her very cute, puzzled expression. "Ok, let me put it this way. I changed my mind just now."

"Changed your mind?"

"Yeah, just now. Even though I made up that story, I didn't feel angry at all. Actually, I think I felt happy when you did that. I don't think I care who knows about us anymore."

"_Bu-bu-bu-but_ what about your dad? You were so worried!"

"I said I don't care, Melody, all right? You're what matters to me now. You make me so happy. I've never felt happier in my entire life than these past few weeks while I've been with you."

"_Awwwww._ _Me too,_" she cooed.

"Really? But you always seemed so happy no matter what. Whatever happened, even if it looked like we were about to die, you were always so happy."

Melody shook her head up and down several times fast. "Well, I thought I was happy before, but I feel really happy right now. It's not the same. This happy is better… _much better._ It's because I love you, Alexandra."

"I love you too, Melody." They stopped walking. Alexandra moved her head over to kiss her, and Melody was more than happy to move her lips to meet her. Their soft lips slid into one another and their arms wrapped around each other. They both closed their eyes as they enjoyed a nice long sweet kiss.

After they pulled their lips back apart, they simply stood and stared into each other's eyes, basking in their love for one another. Even though they were in public, they wanted to savor this moment. Alexandra then tenderly gripped Melody's hand and continued to hold it as she resumed walking down the street with her.

She wasn't content with this, however, and quickly wrapped her arm back around Melody who did the same. They then pressed their heads together and continued to stroll along as they shared each other's warmth. People gawked and stared, but they didn't care. They had each other.

"Snuggle skunky," Melody purred.

"Dumb dumb," Alexandra purred back.

"I wish everyone could know how sweet you are," Melody mused.

"I'm fine with just you knowing it."

"I'm so lucky," she said before kissing her lover again.

As the sun slowly set, they continued to walk off into the horizon together. While the future wasn't clear, they knew their love was strong enough to endure whatever may come their way.

And they lived happily ever after.

The End


End file.
